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Bangladesh to share water of Feni River with India


Published : 08 Sep 2019 08:43 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 01:41 PM

Bangladesh has decided in principle to share 1.82 cusec of water of the river Feni with India. If India withdraws water from Bangladesh river Feni, there will be no adverse impact on environment of the country, experts said.

Talking to Bangladesh Post, senior member of Joint River Commission(JRC) Engineer K.M. Anwar Hossain informed, India has requested for 1.82 cusec of water from Bangladesh and Bangladesh, in principle, has agreed to allow 1.82 cusec of water withdrawal by India for drinking purposes only. But formal decision has not been taken yet.

He also informed, by providing the amount of water to India, it will not hamper the normal flow of water of Feni River. However, he said Bangladesh is also collecting required data in this connection. After collecting the data on international standard, Bangladesh will share the Feni River Water.

Mahmudur Rahman, Director of JRC said, Feni River is flowing through International Border that is why India was claiming to share the river water with Bangladesh. A secretary level meeting was also held on August 8 in this regard. Based on interest of two countries, final decision of sharing water of the river will be taken.

He also informed, another secretarial meeting will held next month. Apart from this, during the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India, the issue of sharing the Feni river water is likely to be discussed. All the river related issues with India will also be discussed during the PM’s visit.

While asking whether the withdrawal of water by India will be illegal, he replied, as India wants 1.82 cusec of water and Bangladesh has decided in principle to provide that water by not making any adverse impact on environment of the country, there was nothing illegal. “As the country is using water for irrigation and India did not object to it, so there will be no adverse impact if India shares Feni River water,” he added.

According to Indian authorities, there is a crisis of food and drinking water in Sabarum of Tripura. Bangladesh decided in principle to provide water for humanitarian ground at the request of India. The Indian delegation said it was awaiting a high level decision by the government.

An official of the Ministry of Water Resources said, “Bangladesh agrees to provide water for humanitarian ground." The amount of water they ask for is 2 to 5 percent of the Feni river stream. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did not want to be named informed Bangladesh Post, “Bangladesh has agreed in principle to provide water to India in 2010.”

However, no final decision has been made on how much water will be provided. Implementation of the 'Drinking Water Supply scheme was discussed in Sabrum city of Tripura to lift 1.82 cusecs of water from the Feni River. Water Resource Secretary of Bangladesh Kabir Bin Anwar said a study related to Ganges barrage was conducted long time ago. “Now we have decided to have a joint study. To make it a good start, we have formed a committee that will decide who will do what.”

“Its (four-member committee) time is fixed. So there is no scope of lingering (things),” he said when asked. “The design and construction issue is not coming right now. We will do the study now.” The Indian secretary, however, spoke of the water scarcity facing India. “Water in India is the topmost agenda for the government. The kind of problems you have today are perhaps not as acute as India’s.

Water secretary said, India has recently abolished the provision for forming separate commission for solving water-sharing issues and set up one commission. “If India accepts the right to water as a universal human right then you have a different perspective in law and politics.” And if that happens there would be negotiations and renegotiations on how the water would be shared among the states in which the rivers flow, he said.

Kabir said Pakistan and part of Northern Indian lands are being irrigated by water from Indus river basin and most of the water canals were in Indian territory. But, the two countries had strike Indus basin water sharing agreement in 1950 when tension between the two countries were at the peak.

Bangladesh and India share 54 rivers and two – the Ganges and the Brahmaputra – are major rivers. Bangladesh has water sharing agreement with only one – the Ganges. India is often criticised for not allowing Bangladesh to build a barrage to preserve water and use the water when needed. The issue has been pending for a quite long time.

According to sources, the Indian side sought water from the Feni river to supply to the people of Sabarum town in Tripura, India. In view of this, Bangladesh decided to give water to India in a humane perspective at an internal meeting However, Water Resources Secretary level meeting was no longer been held in this connection, so the decision was not communicated to India.

It is learnt, by the time India started pumping 3 to 5 cusecs of water from the river through various pumps without the permission and consent of Bangladesh. At several technical level meetings of the Joint River Commission, the country's delegation was asked to take steps to prevent India from withdrawing water from the Feni river and removing the pumps from the border line.

“We don’t have any major problem as far as India and Bangladesh are concerned. There are as many as 54 rivers and on the river Ganges we already have a water sharing agreement from 1996. That agreement has worked very satisfactorily in spite of the fact that there are challenges the way hydrology changes.”

The Bangladesh secretary termed the meeting a “new beginning of the two new governments that came with huge mandate”. “We are working on a framework agreement on those rivers,” Kabir said.