New Delhi: Faced with criticism from within Bangladesh over sudden floods allegedly caused by the opening of sluice gates of an Indian dam, India denied the claims, attributing the flooding to incessant rainfall in catchment areas downstream. However, the denial did little to quell anger in Dhaka, where a minister in Bangladesh’s interim cabinet accused India of “inhumanity” for opening the gates without prior notice.
Bangladeshi information and broadcasting adviser Nahid Islam said on Thursday (August 22) that “we can see the upstream water coming in and creating a flood situation. India has shown inhumanity and non-cooperation by opening the dams without any advance warning,” the Daily Star reported.
Islam, a prominent student leader of the Bangladesh quota reform movement, also said urged India to stop its “anti-people policy” and that Bangladesh’s people and students were “angry with this policy of India”, as per the Daily Star.
Over three million people have been affected and at least two people have died as floods hit eight districts in Bangladesh. The worst hit districts are Feni, Noakhali and Cumilla.
Bangladeshi media, including the Dhaka Tribune and the Business Standard, reported that the flooding was due to the opening of the sluice gates of the Dumbur dam in Tripura – something that officials claimed was not communicated to them. There were protests held by students issuing warnings to India, and social media was also filled with posts claiming that this was a deliberate act.
But while India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) acknowledged the “concerns being expressed in Bangladesh”, to say that the floods were caused by the Dumbur dam’s opening “is not factually correct”, it said in a lengthy statement.
It explained that the catchment areas of the Gumti River, which spans both 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 statement added.
Incidentally, the Indian high commissioner, Pranay Verma, paid a courtesy call on Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus this afternoon, which was not surprisingly overshadowed by the allegations over the floods..
The Chief Adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters the Indian envoy had informed that the dam gates had automatically opened due to the unprecedented increase in water level following heavy rains.
India’s high commission in Bangladesh posted that Verma “reiterated India’s [commitment] to working with Bangladesh to fulfill [the] shared aspirations of [the] peoples of [India and Bangladesh] for peace, security and development” during his meeting with Yunus.
But ahead of Verma’s meeting, Bangladeshi media, citing sources, reported the meeting as a ‘summoning,’ implying a stern diplomatic rebuke and highlighting that the floods have become another ‘flashpoint’ in the bilateral relationship.
According to Indian official sources, India had requested the meeting as a routine courtesy between the resident ambassador and the new head of government in Bangladesh, with the meeting confirmed before recent developments.
“Any official endorsement of such misplaced narratives is unhelpful to bilateral ties. The use of “summon” is clearly an attempt at disinformation,” the sources stated.
Water levels and India’s side
The MEA statement pointed out that the Dumbur dam is located 120 kilometres upstream from the Bangladeshi border and stands at a modest height of 30 metres. The dam is used for power generation, with 40 megawatts of electricity supplied to Bangladesh.
India has three water level observation sites along the 120-kilometre stretch of the river from the Dumbur dam to the Bangladeshi border at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2. The Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which India provides real-time flood data to Bangladesh.
“In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,” the MEA statement noted.
India stated that data on rising water levels from Amarpur was shared with Bangladesh until 3 pm on August 21, after which communication was disrupted. “At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to communication problems. Nevertheless, we have tried to maintain communication through alternative means established for urgent data transmission”.
Tripura’s power minister Ratan Lal Nath had posted on his verified Facebook page at 6.30 pm on Wednesday evening that “no gate of the Gumti hydroelectric project has been manually opened”.
“The reservoir’s capacity is up to 94 metres. Once the water level exceeds this limit, the gates will automatically release water. Conversely, if the water level drops below 94 metres, the gates will automatically close. Accordingly, as the water level in the Gomati reservoir has risen above 94 meters, water is being released automatically through two gates. One gate is releasing water at a 50% rate,” he posted in Bengali.
He stated that there was “no reason to … unnecessarily panic about this” and urged the “people of the concerned areas to be alert”.
Forty minutes earlier, the district administration of Gomati district posted on its Facebook page that according to the 5 pm-report from field staff, “Two nos. [numbers] Flap gates fully & one gate partially (50%) (automatically) discharging water from reservoir”.
The MEA emphasised that floods on common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a “shared problem, inflicting suffering on people on both sides, and require close mutual cooperation for resolution”.
“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,” the MEA statement concluded.
Reports and protests
The Dhaka Tribune cited an official from the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, who said India had opened the dam’s gates. The report also claimed that the India-Bangladesh protocol for data exchange did not cover this area, and any rainfall data from across the border was obtained independently by Bangladeshi officials.
The serious flood situation also takes place against the backdrop of the political transition in Bangladesh, which saw the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as prime minister after 15 years due to a popular students-led movement.
Hasina is currently in India, having abruptly left Dhaka after resigning on August 5. The Awami League, her political party, has long been perceived as pro-India, which meant that her removal from power had thrown up diplomatic challenges for New Delhi.
There had been attacks on minority facilities in Bangladesh after Hasina’s removal, which has been documented by civil society groups. But the complaint in Dhaka has been that it has been weaponised and exaggerated by supporters of the ruling Indian party to spread disinformation to support their domestic priorities.
During the first phone call between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh’s interim Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus, the Indian leader had raised the issue of attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus but extended support to the interim government.
Earlier on Wednesday night, around 600 students held a protest at Dhaka-based Jagannath University stating that it was a conspiracy by India to flood the country as part of retribution for the overthrow of the Hasina government.
A key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, Hasnat Abdullah told reporters that India’s actions during this period will be avenged in the future.
“You (India) must not forget about chicken’s neck,” he told reporters on Thursday. The ‘chicken’s neck’ is a reference to the Siliguri corridor, the narrow strip of land connecting the Indian mainland to the seven states in the north-east. Bangladesh lies to the south-west of this corridor.
The Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami issued a statement that India had “created a situation to drown the people of greater Comilla region of Bangladesh by opening this dam”.
“So far seven people have been reportedly killed. We are deeply concerned about this inhuman act of the Indian government,” said the Islamist political party.
According to Indian news agency PTI, the Indian state of Tripura, through which the Gumti river flows after the Dumbur dam, has recorded the death of 10 people in the floods.
The Tripura chief minister Manik Saha said that the flood situation was “unprecedented”. “We are monitoring the situation closely. District Magistrates have been asked to render all possible help to the affected people,” he said.
As per Tripura’s state government, around 32,750 people have taken shelter in 330 relief camps.
