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Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma, in a courtesy meeting with chief adviser to the interim government Professor Mohammad Yunus on Thursday, claimed that water was released ‘automatically’ from a dam due to rising water levels upstream in India amid reports of floods wreaking havoc in Bangladesh’s eastern and northeastern districts. 

He described the flood in Tripura as something ‘very unprecedented’, causing the displacement of 50,000 people there, the chief adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam told a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy after the meeting.

The flooding has created havoc on both sides of Bangladesh and India, the press  secretary said, quoting Pranay as saying in the meeting at the State Guesthouse Jamuna, now the Chief Adviser’s residence. 

Chief Adviser Professor Yunus laid emphasis on high-level collaboration on water issues and on activating this in emergency situations.

Referring to the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan, he said that water-sharing of the joint rivers could be resolved through working together, according to the press secretary. 

Earlier on the day, the Indian external affairs ministry claimed in a statement that the flood in Bangladesh was not caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in the Indian state of Tripura but by ‘automatic releases’ of waters.

‘The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from the large catchments downstream of the dam,’ said the statement.

‘We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flooding in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct,’ it said.

The external affairs ministry pointed out that the catchment areas of the river Gumti that flows through India and Bangladesh had witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.

‘The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW of power from Tripura,’ the statement said, adding that heavy rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh.

‘In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,’ it claimed.

The statement also said that, as the two countries share 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation was 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 Indian external affairs ministry said in the statement.