India digging canals, setting up plants upstream Teesta

Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has expressed its deep concern to India over the projects taken by the West Bengal state government to construct two canals and three hydropower plants reducing the water volume in the transboundary River Teesta.
Apart from it, Bangladesh also sought to India detail projects plan that taken by the state government of West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has invited Indian Water Resources Ministry to join the ministerial-level Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting to be held in Dhaka soon.
Amid the ongoing tussle over the water sharing of the transboundary Teesta River, one of the major rivers to invigorate the vast land of the northern part of Bangladesh, the West Bengal government unilaterally has attempted to divert the water by taking several projects ignoring Bangladesh’s long demand.
“The matter is very concern for Bangladesh. We have already prepared a letter of concern regarding the projects to send India through the Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry,” Dr. Mohammad Abul Hossen, Member of the JRC told The New Nation on Tuesday.
Asked regarding holding the ministerial level meeting, the JRC member replied, “We have already sent the invitation to our Indian counterpart. Though they are agreed to join the meeting, they are yet to set the meeting date.”
Dhaka has been waiting for decades for a treaty on the equal sharing of the Teesta’s waters. A treaty was ready to be signed in 2011 but got stuck at the last moment because of staunch opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
From the very beginning of signing the Teesta deal between Bangladesh and India, the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has been ignoring all norms and opposing the decisions taken by the Central Government of India to sign a deal with Bangladesh for just sharing of Teesta River water, one of the common rivers between the two countries.
Though the rivers are the lifeline for agriculture, industry and the domestic sectors, Bangladesh’s rivers have been suffering for decades as waters of common rivers are being withdrawn unilaterally in the upstream by India.
As a result, vast areas of Bangladesh have become deserted.
The construction of barrages, hydroelectric dams, and other structural interventions in the upstream of these rivers heavily obstruct the normal flow of water towards Bangladesh.
India often exploits these structures to withdraw water in the dry months (generally from March to May) for irrigation, energy production and economic uses. It not only creates tremendous stress on surface water resources in the northern districts of Bangladesh, but also causes a significant decrease in groundwater recharge, resulting in the depletion of soil moisture.
However, the West Bengal state government of India decided in principle to set up three hydropower projects in the Darjeeling hills, with the likelihood of two of the projects reducing water volume in the transboundary River Teesta, according to The Telegraph.
The Indian newspaper reported, quoting an unnamed West Bengal government official, that in-principle approval was given to the preparation of a detailed project report on the Teesta Low Dam Project (TLDP) I & II, on the Bara Rangeet River, which will have a combined capacity to produce 71MW electricity.
A similar approval has been given for a DPR on the Balason Hydroelectric Project worth 38MW on the Balason and Rangbhang rivers, the report added.
The government officials told The Telegraph that they needed to study the feasibility of the projects.
The report said that the decision comes as a shock to Dhaka which just came to learn that two new canals were being dug under the Teesta Barrage project for withdrawing more water for irrigation in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.
According to The Telegraph, two of the three planned Darjeeling projects are likely to reduce the volume of water in the Teesta that is available for irrigation, particularly during the December-April lean period when the demand for irrigation water goes up in Bangladesh.
With a general election expected in Bangladesh this year-end or in early January next year, a failure to seal the Teesta treaty is likely to compound problems for Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the report said.
River experts, who were also not named in the report, were quoted as saying that too much focus on using the Teesta for irrigation and energy generation might kill the river.
In Bangladesh, experts feared that the two new canals planned under the Teesta Barrage project might worsen the situation in the north, where arbitrary water withdrawal and release through the Gajoldoba barrage trigger frequent flash floods and dry spells.
Earlier on March 10, Indian media have reported that the Bengal Irrigation Department took possession of around 1,000 acres land to dig two more canals under the Teesta Barrage Project to channelise water for agricultural purposes.
The move will help bring more farms under irrigation in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts but may upset Bangladesh where the Teesta flows into from north Bengal.
Around 100 cumecs (cubic metres per second) of water are available in the Teesta in the summer months. Around 1,600 cumecs are required to irrigate agricultural land both in India and Bangladesh, said sources.