India, on Thursday, termed as ”factually not correct” reports in Bangladesh that the current flood situation in certain parts of the neighbouring country has been caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura.
”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 flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The MEA said 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 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. Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed. Amarpur station is in part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real-time flood data to Bangladesh,” it added.
The MEA clarified that data showing a rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on 21 August. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems in communication. Still, India has tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.
”Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides and requires close cooperation towards resolving them,” it said.
As the two countries share 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of bilateral engagement. ”We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” the MEA added.