India's 'death barrage' nightmare for Bangladesh
India's 'death barrage' nightmare for Bangladesh
By Nadeem Qadir
DHAKA (AFP): Rivers dry up, trees wither and fields become dry and useless as dust: this is the ecological nightmare that now haunts Bangladesh, already one of the world's poorest countries, after the building of a dam in neighboring India.
Bangladeshis from western Kushtia down to southern Khulna are feeling the first pinch from the Farakka Barrage -- 19 kilometers (12 miles) upstream on the Ganges operating since 1975 -- and curse it without hesitation.
Ask locals what causes the problems in the April-to-June dry season, and there is the terse reply: "Don't you know? It's because of the death barrage."
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia terms the problem a life-and-death issue, accusing India of "unilateral extraction" of Ganges water that has created an "unimaginable, adverse effect on the economy and environment in Bangladesh."
New Delhi has responded by charging Dhaka with "playing politics" with a bilateral issue, but has still promised to continue dialog. But years of bilateral talks on the issue, a major irritant between the two South Asian neighbors, have so far yielded no results.
"You can walk on soft, sandy bed where the Gorai river, a tributary of the Ganges, once flowed strongly," said a local reporter on return from Kushtia.
He said the weather is chilly in the morning and the dry and hot winds sweep the area, with practically no moisture in the soil.
Water experts said the ecological changes, caused by the "dehydrational impact" of the Ganges, were already being felt and "a slow, almost inexorable process of desertification" has set in north and northwestern Bangladesh.
Sheikh Abdul Momin, an engineer with the government's Water Development Board predicted: "It is only a matter of time before the Gorai dies."
Experts said shoals dot the 175-kilometer (110-mile) Gori because of the water shortage, and some of its 25 tributaries face a similar fate.
Deltaic Bangladesh is criss-crossed by some 230 rivers and water-sharing with India involves over 50 rivers. India built the Farakka dam to divert water to flush out the port of Calcutta.
A major headache now is the 350,000 hectares (864,500 acres) Ganges-Kobadak Irrigation project spanning eight districts, as acute low flow in the Ganges has given rise to fears that farmers may be unable to plant rice seedlings for the second consecutive time.
"We are now more or less certain that no water will be available in the current season" for 48,500 hectares (121,000 acres) of planting, Sofiuddin Ahmed, the project director, told the Daily Star newspaper.
The loss for the two seasons could be about 22 million Taka (US$500,000). District officials are grappling to find an alternative crop that would need very little water.
In the country's southern coastal belt, drinking water has also become an acute problem and because of high salinity in the area incidence of intestinal disorders is rampant, in some cases fatal. Ground water problems even affect the capital, Dhaka.
Some 40 million trees in the 6,000-square-kilometers (2,400- sq.-mile) Sundarban mangrove forest have reportedly been affected by what experts call "top-dying syndrome," with withering top branches, because of high salinity in water or lack of nutrition.
The forest is home to many endangered species, including the Royal Bengal Tiger, and a source of livelihood for thousands, besides the main source of raw material for the Khulna Paper Mills, a major industrial complex.
The irrigation ministry's latest statistics show that the salinity front has moved 220 kilometers (130 miles) inland, affecting agriculture and fishing, while the shortage of water has affected river ferries, Bangladesh's most important form of transport.
Half of the 5,896 kms (3,685 miles) of riverway are now completely closed, affecting travelers and the economy.