Flooding in Bangladesh Not Caused by Release of Water from Indian Dam on Gumti River, MEA Clarifies

India rejected Bangladesh's claim that floods in eight Bangladeshi districts were caused by the release of water from the Dumbur dam in Tripura. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that the allegation is factually incorrect.

New Delhi:India on Thursday dismissed Bangladesh's accusation against India of causing flood in the country's eight districts. The Ministry of External Affairs said 'this is factually incorrect'. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, "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 the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti river in Tripura. This is factually not correct."

Amid the ongoing situation in Bangladesh, the students of Jagannath University blamed India for the floods and staged a protest march on Wednesday. The students alleged that the floods were caused after India opened the sluice gates of the Dumboor and Gazaldoba dams without informing Dhaka.

"We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days", the MEA said.

The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam, the Ministry of External Affairs clarified on Thursday. 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.

Along the about 120 kn river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2. Heavy rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic release has been observed.

Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real-time flood data to Bangladesh. Data showing a rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on August 21, 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems in communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.

It is pertinent to note that floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting suffering on people on both sides and require close cooperation towards resolving them.

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.