Dhaka has sought to know from New Delhi about India鈥檚 fresh plan to divert waters from the common river Teesta by digging two more canals upstream in West Bengal state.
鈥榃e have sent a note verbale to New Delhi seeking to know about their plan for diverting waters from the river Teesta,鈥� foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen told reporters at his office on Sunday.
Without giving further details, he said that the water resources ministry would send a letter to the Indian government over the matter while the foreign ministry made the diplomatic communication to know about the plan.
Asked whether they had expressed concerns over India鈥檚 fresh move to divert waters from the trans-boundary river, the senior secretary said that India might have initiated the plan much earlier, but nothing has happened as yet.
Expressing concern over India鈥檚 fresh plan to divert the Teesta waters, state minister for water resources Zaheed Farooque told reporters on Thursday that the Joint Rivers Commission had already prepared a draft letter to raise the matter formally with New Delhi.
鈥榃e came to know from newspaper reports in India as well as in Bangladesh that India took a plan to dig two more canals to divert water from the Teesta upstream in West Bengal. It is alarming,鈥� Farooque said after a meeting at the foreign ministry.
He said that Bangladesh, which shares at least 54 rivers as a lower riparian country with India, knew nothing officially about the country鈥檚 fresh plan to divert Teesta waters and the construction of hydropower plants on the same river in Darjeeling.
River researchers feared that the decision of West Bengal to dig two more canals to divert water from the river Teesta would badly affect the lives and livelihoods of about two crore people in Bangladesh鈥檚 north.
Northern Bangladesh will grow drier because of the arbitrary withdrawal of water, the researchers said, dealing a severe blow to the region鈥檚 nature and environment, which are already under tremendous stress from the impacts of a changing climate.
The Teesta, once a mighty river flowing from Himalayan glaciers, now mostly runs like a stream in Bangladesh in the lean period and overflows during the monsoon, which causes frequent floods in the region.
Bangladesh has been waiting for decades for a water-sharing treaty to be signed with India over the Teesta. But West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee blocked such a deal in 2011, citing the need for water for farmers in the Indian state.
Water Development Board officials said that four canals were arbitrarily withdrawing water from the Teesta in West Bengal before the latest announcement of digging two more canals came from the Indian state government to serve around one lakh farmers in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.
The foreign ministry鈥檚 spokesperson, Seheli Sabrin, said on Thursday that Dhaka was cautiously observing the matter and was trying to learn about it as the issue was linked to the lives and livelihoods of the country鈥檚 people.
She said that the foreign ministry was working with the JRC and the water resources ministry in this regard.
On March 4, Indian newspaper The Telegraph reported the transfer of 1,000 acres of land to the irrigation ministry of West Bengal to excavate two new canals for withdrawing water from the Teesta and the Jaldhaka.
According to Indian media reports, there are 42 dams built on the Teesta starting from Sikkim.
The Teesta flows some 115 kilometres inside Bangladesh, according to the WDB, including 13 kms upstream the Teesta Barrage built by Bangladesh in Lalmonirhat.
India鈥檚 Gajoldoba Barrage project on the Teesta was launched in 1975 with a plan to irrigate 9.22 lakh hectares of agricultural land in north Bengal of West Bengal with the plan to route water from the river through canals on its banks, reported the Telegraph.