Tripura’s Dumbur dam not responsible for ongoing Bangladesh floods: New Delhi

Noting expressed concern in Bangladesh regarding the flood situation, India has explained the reasons behind flood and what is said in Bangladesh is not factually correct.

“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct,” said the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday.

Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them, said the Indian side.

India pointed 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 flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam,” MEA said in a statement on the flood situation.

As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of bilateral engagement, India said.

“We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” according to MEA.

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 40 MW power from Tripura.

Along the about 120 km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2, said MEA.

Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh.

“In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,” MEA said.

Amarpur station is 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 up to 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024.

At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems of communication.

“Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data,” said the MEA.

Meanwhile, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma will meet Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus this afternoon as scheduled before.

The flood situation is likely to be discussed in the courtesy meeting.