Floods on common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, says MEA
The current flood situation in the eastern regions of Bangladesh has not been caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam which is upstream of the Gumti River in the Indian state of Tripura, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday (August 22, 2024). This river flows through both India and Bangladesh.
 
Describing concerns that have been expressed in Bangladesh regarding the current situation as “factually not correct,” the MEA pointed out that the Dumbur dam was “quite far from the border”.
 
“We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed 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 stated.
 
According to the MEA, floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them.
 
“As (the) two countries share 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” the MEA stated.
 
Here are key points from the MEA statement on the matter:

 1. The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120 Km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40 MW power from Tripura.

2. Along the about 120-km river course, we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2.

3. Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed.

4. Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real-time flood data to Bangladesh.

5. Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.