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Tipaimukh Dam Impacts

Independent study by Bangladesh stressed

UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh must initiate an independent study, instead of depending on a joint one, on the impacts of the Tipaimukh dam project that poses serious threats to the country's food security and biodiversity, observed experts and activists.
They said members of the joint expert group, drawn from Bangladesh, will have to bear the brunt of 'irresponsible' and 'submissive' statements made in favour of the dam project by several ruling party politicians and ministers of the country in the past.
The Bangladeshi members will sit with their Indian counterparts at a meeting of the group to be held in New Delhi on August 27-28 to study the impacts of the Tipaimukh dam project.
M Inamul Haque, former director general of Bangladesh Haor and Wetland Development Board (BHWDB), told UNB that construction of the Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river, 210 kilometres upstream of the Bangladeshi part of the common river, will undoubtedly change the natural pattern of water flow across the country's northeastern Haor region, which a hub of sweet-water fishes and Boro paddy.
Boro paddy cultivation in most of the Haor region, which constitutes eight districts and 33 electoral constituencies, is bound to be affected if the dam is constructed, he said.
“The dam operation will increase the water flow along the Barak, Surma and Kushiara rivers during October-February period that will stop the water recession from the low lands across the river basins during that time,” Inamul said, adding that if the Boro cultivation needs to continue in Haor region, water needs to be drained out during the period at any cost.
“Most of the Haor lands produce only one crop in the winter, which is Boro. I can roughly estimate the low-lying lands in the region produce Boro rice worth Tk 5,000 crore every year,” he said.
The dam project not only poses threat to the food security of the Haor region but also involves the question of national food security as the Haor region contributes almost one-sixth of the annual rice production in Bangladesh, he added.
The Master Plan of Haor Area, prepared by BHWDB and Centre for
Environmental and Geographic Information Services, shows that about 19 lakh hectares of lowlands in eight Haor districts of Bangladesh account for 52 lakh tonnes of rice production every year.
Dr Mostafa Ali Reza Hossain, professor of the Department of Fisheries Biology and Genetics at Bangladesh Agricultural University, said about 50 critically endangered fish species in the Haor region will disappear if the region gets no water, as it is feared, during the two-year dam construction period.
The operation of the dam also poses threat to all of the 200-plus fish species in the region as the breeding condition of the fishes will definitely be hampered due to the change in water depth over the floodplains, he said.
“Many of the sweet-water fishes lay their eggs on shallow floodplains during April-July. If the shallow floodplains lose their character due to change in water flow, it will also affect the natural breeding of fishes, which are the major sources of protein for the people living in Haor region,” Prof Mostafa added.
Prof Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, said, “I welcome the progress, though much belated, in the attempt for the joint study, but we also need to go for our own, independent environmental impact assessment of the Tipaimukh dam project.”
“When the government people, including ministers and prime minister's advisers, spearhead showing enough of irresponsibility to people and submissiveness to the rhetoric on Tipaimukh dam forged by the Indian authority, it will be a harder task for the experts to achieve anything,” he said.
“How did Prime Minister's Adviser Gowher Rizvi or Foreign Minister Dipu Moni get convinced on India's assurance that Bangladesh will not be affected by the dam when no one has conducted an environmental impact assessment inside Bangladesh border,” Prof Anu questioned.
"Whatever the study is going to reveal, it must be made public. Resuming the clandestine nature of the past or supporting the Indian version only for utmost faith on them will not convince the people,” he stressed.