Bangladesh floods not due to release of water from Tripura dam, says MEA

“We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days,” the statement added. It further said the flood was “primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam”.

“The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border – over 120 km 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 power from Tripura,” the statement said. “Along the about 120 km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2,” it added.

The MEA also pointed out that heavy rainfall has continued since August 21 in Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. “In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,” the statement said.

“Amarpur station is in part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real time flood data to Bangladesh…Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh upto 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data,” it added.

The statement went on to say that floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh were a shared problem “inflicting sufferings” on people on both sides and required “close mutual cooperation” towards resolving them.

“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 statement said.