Floods in Bangladesh not due to release of waters from dam, says India

The current flood situation in Bangladesh is not due to the release of waters from the dam on Gumti River in Tripura, India, said the neighbouring country in a statement today (22 August). 

“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,” reads the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs of India. 

The statement further explained 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.

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 40MW power from Tripura.

“Along the about 120 Km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2,” reads the statement.

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

Amarpur station is in part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting realtime flood data to Bangladesh.

“Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh upto 3pm 21 August. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data,” said the statement.

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.

The statement further reads,” As two countries sharing 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.”