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No Ganges water beyond treaty

Bangladesh experts trash Mamata's outcry over broken Farakka sluice gates

Pinaki Roy
There is little scope of Bangladesh's getting excess water through the Farakka barrage as the Ganges water treaty provides for adjusting the additional volume, experts say.
Even if extra water is released through faulty sluice gates, the flow through the other gates can always be reduced as it is India which controls the barrage operation.
The Farakka barrage that had long been a source of contention between the two neighbours has returned to the fore with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee crying foul over the Ganges water flow to Bangladesh.
In a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she has lately expressed concern that Bangladesh is getting more than its share of water because of two damaged sluice gates.
Gate 13 of the barrage went out of order on June 16 last year and gate 16 on December 9, she wrote to the prime minister.
Md Ahsanullah, director of the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission, told The Daily Star yesterday it was true that Bangladesh got more water this year.
But the country cannot make any use of additional water due to the absence of an adequate number of water reservoirs, he said.
He said if the proposed Ganges barrage was built, the excess water could be reserved for use in the dry season from March to May.
Ahsan Ullah said the design of the Ganges barrage to be built at Pangsha in Rajbari would be completed in July and the tender for its construction would be floated in December.
Ainun Nishat, an eminent water expert who was involved in the formulation of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty in 1996, said if two of the 109 sluice gates of Farakka barrage were broken, it was still very much possible for India to control the release of water.
“And it is obvious that India would not allow any extra water to Bangladesh,” he said.
“Bangladesh might get water more than the usual if the water increases in the river.
"The quantity of river water depends on many factors, including excessive rainfalls upstream and less irrigation,” said Ainun Nishat, who is also vice-chancellor of Brae University.
Data available on the website of the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission show that in the first 10 days of February the flow was 1,11,872 cusecs [cubic feet per second] and Bangladesh received 80,787 cusecs at Hardinge Bridge point.
Under the terms of the treaty, Bangladesh is supposed to get 71,872 cusecs of water.
“It is India which controls the release of water. If India finds it has received less water in any 10-day period, it can balance it out,” said Nishat.
He explained that whatever water was available at the Farakka barrage point, India would get the highest amount of40,000 cusecs as the feeder canal of the river Bhagirathi cannot contain more than that.
Under the provisions of the Ganges treaty, Bangladesh and India will each receive 35 thousand cusecs in alternate three 10-day periods between March 11 and May 10.
If the water flow is 70-75 thousand cusecs, Bangladesh will get 35 thousand and India the remainder.
If it is more than 75 thousand cusecs, India will get 40 thousand while Bangladesh will get the balance. But if the flow is 70 thousand cusecs or less, both the countries will share the flow equally.
However, measuring the flow through the Farakka barrage is complicated as it is based on the volume of water at the barrage point and two kilometres downstream at the feeder canal.
The Joint Rivers Commission website also says the availability of water at the Farakka Barrage point in the first 10 days of January this year was 136,486 cusecs, which was 96,179 in 2011 over the same period of time.
Asif Nazrul, an expert on international river water laws, said, “We just reproduce the water sharing data provided by India.”
"India gives us water after diverting the flow at many points. So how do we measure how much water was supposed to be at the Farakka point?” he said.