Medical students protested about Dumbur and Ghazaldoba dams in India
On August 21, 2024, heavy rains and water from various rivers coming down from India caused a flood situation in the eastern part of Bangladesh. Organized free medical camps for medical students for flood victims. Ghazaldoba Dam was constructed in 1998 AD on the upstream side of the Teesta River on the Indian side. Control of the Teesta River passed to India through the Ghazaldoba Dam (Barrage). In 1998, the Indian government built this dam 60 km upstream of the Bangladesh border on the Teesta River. The dam has 54 gates which close and divert water from the main stream of Teesta to different sectors.
Dumbur dam in India
Due to the flood situation in Bangladesh, 73 upazilas of 11 districts are currently flooded. The districts are Feni, Comilla, Chittagong, Noakhali, Cox's Bazar, Khagrachari, Brahmanbaria, Laxmipur, Moulvibazar, Habiganj and Sylhet. 5 million people affected; Bangladesh flood victims blame India for floods in Feni. Feni is only a few miles from the Indian border. Residents of Feni have complained that the Indian government has opened the gates of Dumbur Dam on Gomti River in Dhalai district of Tripura, neighboring state of Feni, without any warning. India is using water as a weapon. About 5 million people have been affected by this flood in Bangladesh so far. Local residents said, this is not an ordinary flood. The terrible flood that happened in 1988 has not happened like this time.
Anger is growing among flood victims in Bangladesh. They complain that India is the cause of this suffering. Some even think that there is a political crisis in it. However, the Indian High Commissioner assigned to Bangladesh Prannoy Verma and Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that the gate of the dam was automatically opened due to the increase in the water level. How reasonable is it to give such a dam on the same river of two countries? India has also opened Farakka Gate after Dumbur Dam. Monday) opened 109 gates in Farakka. During the dry season when Bangladesh needs water, they do not provide water, they do not give their fair share.
India did not inform Bangladesh
Almost during the monsoon season, the dammed water in India's rivers bursts together and submerges Bangladesh. Bangladesh and India have agreements to exchange water level information of some rivers. However, let the emergency gate of Dumbur Dam be opened automatically or the dam authorities should open it, but the information was not communicated to Bangladesh even though the Indian region was miking about that information. According to international water law, in these cases, the upstream country must inform the downstream country when the emergency gate of the dam is opened or the dam breaks, so that the downstream country can predict the flood and quickly evacuate people from the flooded area, which is India's responsibility.
Bangladesh sought three types of information from India regarding flood forecasting. First, how much rain falls upstream of the same rivers. How fast is that water coming down? Secondly, what is the rate of rainfall and the rate of water rise in the next three days? Third, when will the 60 dams on the Indian side of the rivers upstream of Bangladesh be opened and how much reserve water can flow downstream? In the last week of August last year, Bangladesh and India's joint river commission meeting asked for this information from Bangladesh. Later, India did not respond to the same information through several letters.
India provides only 14 points of water rise data for uniform rivers. But Bangladesh wanted detailed information on 28 points. Under the Joint Commission Agreement of 1972, Bangladesh receives this single information twice a day. The source of 92 percent of the floods in Bangladesh is water collected through dams in India. As a result, it is not possible to accurately predict floods without knowing the amount, speed and duration of water coming from India in detail. The 14 points Bangladesh receives are four on the Brahmaputra, one each on Dharla and Dudhkumar, four on the Teesta, three on the Ganga and one on the Meghna. But on behalf of Bangladesh, details of 28 points including four more on Brahmaputra, two on Teesta, seven on Ganga and three on Meghna have been requested.
Violation of laws of India in respect of uniform rivers
Over the years, India has been unilaterally withdrawing water during the dry season by building dams, barrages and withholding water in the same rivers, ignoring Bangladesh, in clear violation of international water laws. Even though Bangladesh has finalized the plan and design of construction of Ganga Barrage on Ganga River at Pangsha in Rajbari District for dry season water management in its own region, its implementation has not been possible till now due to the objection of Indian authorities. However, if this project was implemented, it would have played a major role in preventing the salinity and desertification of the southwestern region of the country, including the Sundarbans, by holding back the water of the Ganges during the dry season and supplying it through several other rivers including the Garai.
In the Ganga Treaty signed in 1996, it is mentioned that the two countries will also have a water agreement in the remaining 53 identical rivers except the Ganga, but due to India's non-cooperation, there has been no water agreement in any other river in the last 28 years. In 2011, the two countries approved the draft of the Teesta River Water Treaty, but the Indian government has not yet agreed to the treaty due to the objections of the West Bengal state government. Due to India's unilateral withdrawal of Teesta water through the Ghazaldoba barrage during the dry season due to lack of water agreement, Bangladesh's Teesta Barrage irrigation project became waterless and the drying up of the Teesta river had a serious impact on the groundwater and environment. We have to proceed with the determination to get the fair share of Bangladesh's water by taking the help of various international organizations including international law and the United Nations.
Armed forces rescued 3,567 people affected by floods in one day. In the last 24 hours, the armed forces rescued 3 thousand 567 people from the flood-affected areas of the country through helicopters and boats. In order to prevent the water of the Sibsa river in the Khulna division of Bangladesh from spreading to the tributaries, the students started building a dam. Later, all the local people rushed and along with the students got involved in the work of damming the river. All the divisions of Bangladesh in the tributaries of the Bay of Bengal. Due to the earth's satellite moon, the tides in all those rivers are ebbing. In this, the sea water enters the various rivers of the sub-districts.
15 rivers coming down from the hills of Tripura state of India enter through seven districts of Tripura bordering Bangladesh and through these rivers the mountain rains enter Bangladesh. A tributary of these rivers is Dumbur Lake in Tripura. It flows through Tripura just north of the Khagrachari border and enters Comilla district over an area of over 120 km. Then this river flows through Burichong upazila on the northern side of Comilla city, passes through Muradnagar and Gouripur and reaches Daudkandi and falls into the Meghna river.
In 1976, the Government of India constructed a hydroelectric dam named Dumbur Dam three kilometers downstream from Dumbur Lake, the source of Gomti River. It is smaller compared to Kaptai Dam in Bangladesh. The height of Dumbur Dam is 30 meters, the power generation capacity is 15 MW and the number of spillways or emergency gates is 3, while the height of Kaptai Dam is 45 meters, the power generation capacity is 230 MW and the number of emergency gates is 16.
A hydroelectric dam is a high wall or embankment built transversely between two banks of a river, which holds the upstream water in a reservoir during the rainy season and releases the stored water through turbines to generate electricity throughout the year. But if the height of water in the reservoir is higher than the design height, the water has to be released by opening the emergency gate built on top or side of the dam. In some dams, this emergency gate opens automatically under water pressure.
The thing is, after the reservoir is full, if the excess water coming from the upstream is not released, if the gate is closed and the dam is broken, the water of the entire reservoir will rush at high speed and cause serious disaster in the downstream area. So it is a normal process to release the excess water at the maximum level through the emergency gate after the reservoir is full. Similarly, the emergency gates of the dam are opened when the water level of Kaptai Reservoir exceeds.
Indian authorities claim that the maximum reservoir capacity of Dumbur Dam, located on the Gomti River, is 94 meters (mean sea level). As the water level in the reservoir exceeded its maximum capacity due to heavy rains upstream, two of the three gates of the reservoir opened automatically under the pressure of the water and the water flowed downstream, which flowed 120 km through Indian territory and entered Bangladesh. There are also claims that the dam authorities have opened the two emergency gates of Dumbur Dam on their own. This excess water only flooded the Gomti river and its surroundings and entered Bangladesh. However, except Gomti, the remaining 14 rivers entering Bangladesh from Tripura have also been flowing downhill at high speed for several days.
31 dead in floods, most in Comilla
31 people have died so far in the floods in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country; Out of which 12 died in Comilla, 2 in Feni, 5 in Chittagong, 1 in Khagrachari, 6 in Noakhali, 1 in Brahmanbaria, 1 in Laxmipur and 3 in Cox's Bazar. Two persons are still missing in Moulvibazar. 528 affected unions/municipalities in 73 upazilas of 11 affected districts. A total of 12 lakh 27 thousand 554 families have become watertight in 11 districts. The number of affected people is 58 lakh 22 thousand 734 people. A total of 4 thousand 3 shelters have been opened to provide shelter to the water stranded and affected people. A total of 5 lakh 40 thousand 510 people and 39 thousand 531 cattle have been sheltered in the shelters. The latest news update says the death toll has risen to 67.
The administrators of the flood-affected districts have been given the necessary instructions to work together with the coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement and students of various universities, schools and colleges of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Army, Navy, Air Force, Fire Service and Civil Defense, medical teams and other volunteers.