Farakka Barrage is going to hurt India, too.

[Shafin]

If ever there was a lesson in the unintended effects of damming
rivers, the Farakka Barrage is probably it. A 4.5-kilometer irrigation
dam constructed on a tributary of the River Ganges in 1974, it is
threatening to wreak havoc on a series of downstream villages and
ultimately silt up the Kolkata harbor, the condition it was designed
to fix.

The barrage, a low-height dam, is now raising the possibility that two
of the Ganges' major tributaries, the Padma and the Bhagirathi, will
merge, with unimaginable consequences. Some 20 km downstream from the
barrage, the two rivers are fewer than 750 meters apart. Ten years
ago, they were almost 3 km from each other. The flow of water to the
port of Kolkata, already faced with declining navigability, is
expected to wane further.

Although the barrage, the longest in the world, was originally
intended to divert water from the Ganges into the Hooghly River during
the dry season and rescue the Kolkata port 257 km downstream, the
government in Dhaka has accused India of using it to turn parts of
Bangladesh into a desert, raising salinity, affecting navigation and
adversely influencing the environment, agriculture and fisheries.


A large village, Akheriganj of Bhagabangola, has already disappeared
from the map, with the destruction of 2,766 houses, leaving 23,394
villagers homeless as the rivers have changed their course. A school,
a college, mosques and local governments have disappeared, with
erosion gobbling up towns and villages. The changing river channel,
which forms the border between India and Bangladesh, has resulted in
tension as more than 10,000 hectares of land have shifted from the
Bangladesh side to India.

Source


Just look at satellite images, what they did to the river. Notice the char's after the dam.

Bad deeds come back to bite you, after all.

Maybe they'll think once more about Tipaimukh.

[Emad03]

i have to rate this as one of the best articles i have ever read.

also one of the best posts in bangla cricket.

thx bro for digging this up!

[BD-Shardul]

[Kabir]

Problem to Eeeeeendia is not what we're looking for. All we care about is Eeeeeeendia thinks about their non-sense a little deeply next time.

[uss01]

Hopefully Indian will shut down Farakka and let nature take it's course. It will benefit both India and Bangladesh.

Originally Posted by Kabir
Problem to Eeeeeendia is not what we're looking for. All we care about is Eeeeeeendia thinks about their non-sense a little deeply next time.

[auntu]

ইয়াহু...

[One World]

Karma speaks.

[nobody]

I think there was such one news in Times circa 1998

[BANFAN]

Ki je kon bhai... going to be? It already is since a long time. India knows that very well. The Kolkatta port is virtually shut down atleast 10 years back and the port shifted to Haldia. I went there in 99/00. It was so painful to watch the sufferings and the people, were all abusing the Farakka.

Now they are in ubhoy shonkot; if they close it down; the regions who got the ganges water so far being diverted by Farakka, won't get water and due to so many years of sedimentation in the west bengal region; release of farakka will create some different problems for the Westbengal.

Because of the problems westbengal was facing; Joti Boshu was empowered to do the negotiation with Bangladesh last time. The central government just wanted to keep WB happy.

We have faced the negative effects squarely and I don't think we need to be worried with farakka too much. If they open it up permanently; good enough.

[uss01]

Ufffoooo why do the Indians hate us? Why did the have to build that damn dam in the first place?

Originally Posted by BANFAN
Ki je kon bhai... going to be? It already is since a long time. India knows that very well. The Kolkatta port is vertually shut down atleast 10 years back and the port shifted to Haldia. I went there in 99/00. It was so painful to watch the sufferings and the people were all abusing the Farakka.

Now they are in ubhoy shonkot; if they close it the down; the regions who got the ganges water so far being diverted by Farakka, won't get water and due to so many years nodi bhorat/sedimentation in the bengal region; release of farakka will create some different problems for the Westbengal.

Because of the problems westbengal was facing; joti boshu was empowered to do the negociation with Bangladesh last time. The central government just wanted to keep WB happy.

We have faced the negtive effects squarely and I don't think we need to be worried with farakka too much. If they open it up permanently; good enough.

[billah]

Actually, renowned scientists of Indian origin have said from the very beginning that the dam would be a bad idea. India built it any ways. Here's some food for thought:

1. The silt calculations were wrong. Indian builders have completely miscalculated the amount of silt that washes down from the Himalayas every year.

2. They miscalculated the after effect of a slower flow, due to the dam

3. India has lost enormous amount of arable land due to the dam, in some of the most fertile places inside India

4. Much of the Farakka dam is no longer operable. Many of the gates are permanently under 70-80 feet of sediment. Only a few of the gates are operable

5. One major argument for the dam was a bogus one: to increase the navigability of Hoogly port. Any of you can follow the flow on Google Earth to see where Hoogly port is down the stream. You won't need a specialist. The dam did nothing to increase the navigability of the Hoogly port.

6. The biggest of nightmare created by the Farakka dam: flood control has become a huge man-made disaster. The after effect of slowing down the Ganga has spilled out to thousands of tributaries. Today, parts of India get completely water logged, that never flooded in the past. The dam effect has forced a change of course in many other rivers. The process is simply gaining speed every year. Bangladesh is taking the brunt of it, more and more sudden and monstrous floods every year.

There are many scholarly researches on the subject. In terms of dollars and sense, this dam has been a disaster from the word go. Tipaimukh would be no exception. This is why this time there are more resistance from within India.

[WarWolf]

Good news.

I am not a saint. They made us suffer. I am happy that they are suffering too.

[Shafin]

Originally Posted by billah
Actually, renowned scientists of Indian origin have said from the very beginning that the dam would be a bad idea. India built it any ways. Here's some food for thought:

1. The silt calculations were wrong. Indian builders have completely miscalculated the amount of silt that washes down from the Himalayas every year.

2. They miscalculated the after effect of a slower flow, due to the dam

3. India has lost enormous amount of arable land due to the dam, in some of the most fertile places inside India

4. Much of the Farakka dam is no longer operable. Many of the gates are permanently under 70-80 feet of sediment. Only a few of the gates are operable

5. One major argument for the dam was a bogus one: to increase the navigability of Hoogly port. Any of you can follow the flow on Google Earth to see where Hoogly port is down the stream. You won't need a specialist. The dam did nothing to increase the navigability of the Hoogly port.

6. The biggest of nightmare created by the Farakka dam: flood control has become a huge man-made disaster. The after effect of slowing down the Ganga has spilled out to thousands of tributaries. Today, parts of India get completely water logged, that never flooded in the past. The dam effect has forced a change of course in many other rivers. The process is simply gaining speed every year. Bangladesh is taking the brunt of it, more and more sudden and monstrous floods every year.

There are many scholarly researches on the subject. In terms of dollars and sense, this dam has been a disaster from the word go. Tipaimukh would be no exception. This is why this time there are more resistance from within India.

Thanks a lot for your insight. Can you give some links for the scholerly insights you mentioned?
In my humble opinion, blocking the flow of a river, for whatever reasons, is never a god option. Look at our own example, the kaptai dam. It's cons far outweight its pro's. We had decades of civil war because of this military government initiated plan with total disregard for local population and the result? In dry seasons, Kaptai supplies a paltry 20MW of power. Even the economic output of land submerged by the dam would have been greater.
One good deed of Ershad in respect to Farakka was the patronization of Barendra Bahumukhi Unnayan Prakalpa. It helped greatly to slow down and reverse desertification of Rajshahi. Even then, Just seeing the pictures of Harding's bridge makes me angry.

[BANFAN]

Originally Posted by Shafin
In my humble opinion, blocking the flow of a river, for whatever reasons, is never a god option. Look at our own example, the kaptai dam. It's cons far outweight its pro's. We had decades of civil war because of this military government initiated plan with total disregard for local population and the result? In dry seasons, Kaptai supplies a paltry 20MW of power. Even the economic output of land submerged by the dam would have been greater.
One good deed of Ershad in respect to Farakka was the patronization of Barendra Bahumukhi Unnayan Prakalpa. It helped greatly to slow down and reverse desertification of Rajshahi. Even then, Just seeing the pictures of Harding's bridge makes me angry.

I agree with the hypothesis "It is never good to block/divert the flow of a river" But I don't agree with you on the example;

That's not an appropriate example. Firstly it hasn't blocked or diverted the course of Karnafuli. Karnafuli is as it was. It has only blocked the waters of the mountain to create a reservoir which has always fed the river and that's why we don't see any impact of dry seasons on this river.

Economically speaking; just calculate the contribution of electricity (Two thirds of our national Production) for last over 50 years against the yield of the land. You can infact even out the yield of the land with the yield of the water (fishes & irrigation in lake surrounding areas), then the Electricity is bonus; a huge bonus. Then the communication has been hugely aided by the water while many areas would still remain remote & not connected with the district HQs.

The war has been triggered by a sries of mistakes. The Paki government didn't bother to take the tribal people onboard for such a big decision. They are still fighting some tribal people in their own country. So you cannot attribute the war to the project.

Sheikh Mujib had a second chance of taking them on board but his stubbornness and lack of understanding has pushed the people to pick up arms.

Other wise, Kaptai dam was one of the biggest blessings for the people of Bangladesh; and that includes the chakmas and all other tribal population, specially the people of Kaptai, & Rangamati districts.

[Shafin]

Originally Posted by BANFAN
I agree with the hypothesis "It is never good to block/divert the flow of a river" But I don't agree with you on the example;

That's not an appropriate example. Firstly it hasn't blocked or diverted the course of Karnafuli. Karnafuli is as it was. It has only blocked the waters of the mountain to create a reservoir which has always fed the river and that's why we don't see any impact of dry seasons on this river.

Economically speaking; just calculate the contribution of electricity (Two thirds of our national Production) for last over 50 years against the yield of the land. You can infact even out the yield of the land with the yield of the water (fishes & irrigation in lake surrounding areas), then the Electricity is bonus; a huge bonus. Then the communication has been hugely aided by the water while many areas would still remain remote & not connected with the district HQs.

The war has been triggered by a sries of mistakes. The Paki government didn't bother to take the tribal people onboard for such a big decision. They are still fighting some tribal people in their own country. So you cannot attribute the war to the project.

Sheikh Mujib had a second chance of taking them on board but his stubbornness and lack of understanding has pushed the people to pick up arms.

Other wise, Kaptai dam was one of the biggest blessings for the people of Bangladesh; and that includes the chakmas and all other tribal population, specially the people of Kaptai, & Rangamati districts.

Hydro electricity never generated two thirds of our power production. See the attached image.



The point is, with the same expense and use of land thousands of times lower, we could make a fuel powered plant, or we could go on full flow with Ruppur Nuclear Plant. Over 1,00,000 people was displaced for the dam.
I doubt how much a role kaptai lake plays in irrigation, as the surrounding areas are hilly and normally unsuitable for cultivation. The amount of production gained by fishes is highly offset by the amount that could have been gained by a forrest there. The amount the military has to spend to support its operation there is not low, either. The cost here is too high, in any perspective you look. This money, spent on any other power generation project, would have yielded some better output. To me, it was more of a showpiece than practical project.
On the war issue, the wars fought by pakistan against its tribals have various causes, most of them due to the hard nosed attitude of its rulers. In our cause, only reason the war started is this lake. If it wasn't there, there is no way war could have started. We just failed to take notice that we were submerging the royal palace of Chakma people, didn't we?
About transportation, i agree with you. But its ridiculous to support flooding a vast area because it will make the coasts easily accessible.BTW, do you know that,the projected age of kaptai lake is 90 years, after that, the lake will be filled up bu silt. How will we access the remote parts then?
One point I'll give to kaptai dam is that its a green source of energy, but for our country, which produces very low carbon emission, that's almost insignificant.

On the main issue, here is one more report of impact of farakka on india. Note that the writer, while reporting erosion losses, has completely ignored losses to bangladesh.
http://www.sandrp.in/dams/impct_frka_wcd.pdf

[ammark]

Shafin bhai, I feel obliged to step in and correct some of your assumptions:

Kaptai dam and the hydroelectric project was done in Pakistan amol, during the 1960s. The Karnafuli river flows just past my dada'r bari in fact and my father tells me that prior to 1960s our gram would get regularly flooded due to natural river flow. After 1960 all that has stopped, and the river is facing other problems such as increased salination due to freshwater flow obstruction, etc.

The insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is however due to multiple reasons. It has its early foundations in the land loss during the 1960s when almost 60% of the land area in the Hill Tracts were submerged. Every time I've been to Rangamati my father tells me about the Chakma raja's palace that is now underwater. As BanFan bhai has pointed out, Sheikh Mujib had the chance of bringing the tribal people on board from the very beginning, but his stubbornness, lack of understanding or foresight did manage to create a difficult start to the Bengali people's relationship with the Indigenous tribes who lived in their land. It must be remembered that the CHT was never a Bengali people's land.

However, the impetus for the war came about from 1979 onwards when then president Ziaur Rahman promoted Bangladeshi nationalism, with the philosophy of all Bangladesh belonging equally to all Bangladeshi citizens. He promoted this effort in the Hill Tracts especially by encouraging migration of poor, landless (muslim) Bengali peoples, especially from Chandpur, Noakhali, Sandwip to settle in Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari. The succeeding Ershad and BNP governments continued to promote this policy and the conflict essentially brewed.

The reasons for the conflict is rooted more in the colonial Bangladeshi government policies that encouraged wholescale migration, establishment of settler villages, usurping indigenous rights and say on such matters, overt racism and prejudice from the Bengalis against the indigenous peoples, etc. - things that are in nature the same as what Israel does to the Palestinians.

On the whole I agree with you Shafin Bhai, but I had to clear the inaccuracy in your assumptions. On the other hand BanFan bhai's claim that

Kaptai dam was one of the biggest blessings for the people of Bangladesh; and that includes the chakmas and all other tribal population, specially the people of Kaptai, & Rangamati districts

can sound equally prejudiced and colonial, since it is very subjective and can be argued against at length.