Brahmaputra River Commission: A new horizon for peace and friendship
Belal Ahmed :
Formation of “Bramhaputra River Commission” will eliminate all types of political, military and economic conflicts between China, India and Bangladesh. The upstream countries to Bangladesh, China and India are both nuclear powered. In 1962, both the countries were embroiled in a border fight for Arunachal Pradesh. Before a large conflict erupts regarding the Brahmaputra water flow, Bangladesh as a downstream country can make an initiatory role to establish the Bramhaputra River Commission involving Beijing and New Delhi. Both the upstream countries are developing economically fast.
To keep various fears in abeyance, a unitary flow based multilateral river commission formation is a burning issue of the present time. In doing so, Bangladesh as a downstream country will be benefitted too. A trilateral understanding will bring good results for the region. Bangladesh, to allay its internal fears, should welcome an integrated flow-based solution. For the overall transportation and connectivity issues, it can be a ray of hope. Brahmaputra River by providing easing of communication and transportation, and other integrated projects proposals and their executions can be a bridge of friendship through river ways between the 8 landlocked states of India. By removing all fears and conflicts regarding river ways and eliminating all negative river projects, thus abolishing the possibility of battle for water resources, the Bramhaputra basin can be stepping stone of regional peace and prosperity. It will also enable ease of communication and transport between Kolkata port to Gauhati.
Being the lower most downstream country, Bangladesh is in the highest risk of damage. In the Brahmaputra basin resides 1 per cent of Chinese population, 6 per cent of Indian population, but for Bangladesh it is 70 per cent of the total population. On the other hand, in terms of area, China has 3 per cent of their population in the Brahmaputra basin, Indians have 6 per cent but Bangladesh has 70 per cent of the population. Of the large 5,90,000 km2 area of the basin, Bangladesh have only 8 parts areas of the Brahmaputra river. Brahmaputra is the largest provider of river water of Bangladesh. Ganges and Meghna rivers come after that. Brahmaputra River provides 65 per cent water per year. Brahmaputra, Ganges (Padma) and Meghna comprises 90 per cent of the riverine areas of Bangladesh. All of these rivers’ water flows come outside of Bangladesh. Bramhaputra starts from Assam of India and enters Bangladesh as Meghna. The river flows on the eastern side of Rangpur division and divides Rajshahi division from Mymensingh and Dhaka division. After leaving India, Brahmaputra, before merging with the Ganges, flows for about 250 km inside Bangladesh. After that, it merges with Meghna and ultimately flows into the Bay of Bengal. The tributary of Brahmaputra known as Teesta merges with it on the northern side of Rangpur division. Teesta River is an important one for Bangladesh. An Agreement was scheduled to be signed between India and Bangladesh regarding water distribution of Teesta in 2011. But due to noncooperation of the chief minister of West Bengal, the Agreement could not be signed. The contract would have been the second river contract between India-Bangladesh. In fact, the water flow of Bramhaputra is a matter of life and death for Bangladesh. This is because of the fact that it is the largest source of river water of Bangladesh. Bangladesh will be the largest loser for the competition between China and India. This will be the biggest cause of loss for Bangladesh than any other causes. It is said that the flow path of Brahmaputra River has not found a definite form yet. It is changing continually. After the devastating flood of the last century, the old water flow has become thinner, and is flowing as a thin stream called Old Brahmaputra. In monsoon season, the swell of high velocity water from upstream causes erosion of river banks and changes the path of flow of the river. Every year, erosion of river banks causes large areas of west side of Kurigram and Gaibandha districts and east side of Jamalpur district to be lost into the river basin. Every year, 10 to 20 thousand families are losing their houses. Many families are compelled to change their dwellings several times. A large number of populations migrate to Dhaka losing agricultural livelihoods just to sustain their lives. River banks erosion is causing widening of the river day by day. In 1973, the width was 8.5 km but in 2009 it increased to 12.2 km. Widespread erosion and loss of fertile lands into the river-bed has made life of livelihood, culture and family lives of population unbearable. Many a time, the male member of the family is migrating for the search of livelihood to already over-populated and unplanned Dhaka city. It is already mentioned that Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country among the three in the Brahmaputra basin. This small country is overburdened with a population of over 17 crores. Dhaka city is teeming with about 1 crore 70 lakh inhabitants. Every km of the city bears about 1 lakh 20 thousand people. Water is vitally needed for this burgeoning population. Water is also essential for the balance of natural environment. Due to barely existent water flow of Brahmaputra River, rural people like farmers and fishermen are crowding to the cities for their livelihoods. In the cities, they become rickshaw-pullers, day labourer or garments workers. If Brahmaputra loses its water supply, this flow of city ward crowd will increase much more.
[The writer is Vice-President, Nodi Bachao Andolon (Save River Movement)].
(To be continued).
