Bangladesh News

The parliamentary delegation after its return from India yesterday said their visit to the Tipaimukh site had yielded three achievements.

Referring to the first achievement the team revealed that India assured them that the dam was meant for a hydroelectric plant, not an irrigation project.

About the second one, team leader Abdur Razzaq told reporters at the Jatiya Sangsad media centre that India would not build any barrage or structures for stopping water flowing downstream of Tipaimukh site or in Fulertal area of Manipur.

Citing the third achievement Razzaq said, “India told us about the amount of water to be discharged into the Barak river during the dry season and how much of it will flow into the Surma and Kushiara of Bangladesh, once the dam is built.”

The water flow of the Barak in Bangladesh will increase in the dry season and drop in the rainy season with lessening the possibility of flood, he said.

“No one has ever got such categorical assurance in the past from India. Indian officials assured us that the proposed Tipaimukh dam was meant for hydroelectricity generation,” Razzaq, ruling Awami League lawmaker, said.

“India also assured us that they would not set up any irrigation project there. Moreover, the dam will reduce the risk of floods,” he said.

Razzaq, who led a 10-member team to India on July 29 to collect facts and documents on the dam project, were talking to reporters after a meeting of parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

“For the first time in the last 40 years India has agreed to provide us with such information on the dam,” said the AL lawmaker, adding that Indian authorities had given them a booklet containing facts and information on the project.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked for an expert panel to be formed to verify facts and information they have collected from India.

He also said the government would fix its next course of action based on the report of the expert panel.

The delegation had submitted a voluminous report to Hasina on their experience and visit to the site.

At the invitation of Indian government, the parliamentary delegation went to India for a seven-day visit to collect information on the dam project.

Quoting an Indian water expert, Razzaq said the Tipaimukh dam would help control floods in Bangladesh and increase water flow in the Kushiara and the Surma in dry seasons.

Asked whether his Indian counterparts will keep their promise, Razzaq said, “Why won’t we trust them? They helped us a lot during our Liberation War and on many other occasions.”

He said the benefit of the dam would be much more than the affects and a peaceful positive solution should be reached with India through mutual understanding.

“…Separate surveys by India and Bangladesh has revealed almost the same facts and that Bangladesh would be beneficiary of Tipaimukh dam,” said Razzak, speaking as chief guest at a roundtable titled “Importance of Indo-Bangla Co-operation: GBM systems and water management,” organised jointly by Bangladesh Heritage Foundation and Bangladesh Research and Publication Ltd.

Citing the example of sharing water of the Shindhu between Pakistan and India, he said, “If Pakistan and India being two countries involved in a number of wars can strike a water sharing deal, what is the problem for Bangladesh to have an agreement with India.”

“India is our friend and we must sit and talk with them. Long marches cannot lead to any solution. Solution is always reached through negotiations,” said former ambassador Wali-Ur Rahman, who presided over the roundtable held at the Jatiya Press Club.