The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday denied that floods in eastern districts of Bangladesh were caused due to the opening of the Dumbur dam in Tripura. The clarification comes after protesters in Bangladesh blamed India for floods in eastern districts, triggering security threats for the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. Later in the day, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma met the Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, Mohammad Yunus, in Dhaka and expressed “concern” about the heightened security threats to the Indian mission and personnel based there.
“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti river in Tripura. This is factually not correct,” the MEA said in a statement. Western Tripura and parts of Bangladesh have been inundated with rain in the last few days and this was largely responsible for the flooding in downstream Bangladesh. The Dumbur dam, a hydropower project, had been “auto releasing” water as a consequence of the rainfall, the MEA statement noted. The Dumbur dam is built on the Gumti river which flows through India and Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh share 54 common cross-border rivers and river water cooperation is an important part of bilateral engagement. At a press conference in Dhaka on August 13, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, the new interim government’s adviser on water, forest, environment and climate change, said Bangladesh may consider approaching an international platform for resolving the Teesta waters dispute. Referring to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s assertive stance on the Teesta, Ms. Hasan said the interim administration led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus would take up the issues related to shared rivers between the two countries “forcefully”.
Tripura has witnessed heavy rain, with ‘extremely heavy’ rainfall being reported over southern and western parts from August 19 to 22, the India Meteorological Department said.
“We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days. The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam,” the MEA statement emphasised, “The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border — over 120 km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low-height dam (about 30m) that generates power, which feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh draws 40MW power from Tripura.” Through the 120 km course of the river there were three water-level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2 in Tripura. Rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. “In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases had been observed from the dam,” their communique noted. Automatic releases are a feature of dams that store water for power generation and meant to ensure that water doesn’t exceed a certain level to ensure the reservoir’s stability. At least 12 people have died and two are missing in Tripura following flash floods and landslips due to torrential rain over the past few days. The State government has opened nearly 450 relief camps where 65,400 people have taken shelter. The Indian Air Force deployed two Mi-17 helicopters on Thursday to evacuate people stranded in flood-affected areas. Eleven National Disaster Response Force teams, 26 SDRF units, and emergency service teams are engaged in relief and rescue operations. While landslips occurred at 2,032 locations, 1,789 of these have been cleared and restoration work is under way. The water level of rivers is above the danger mark in Dhalai, Khowai, South Tripura, West Tripura, North Tripura and Unakoti districts. The India Meteorological Department has forecast more rain for Friday.
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Published - August 23, 2024 07:06 am IST
