Bangladesh faces grave risk due to India’s unilateral withdrawal of shared waters: Fakhrul

Bangladesh is increasingly facing an existential threat as India keeps withdrawing water from transboundary rivers unilaterally and without any regard for international laws, said rural government minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday.

Signs of gradual desertification are emerging in many parts of the country as India continues to construct dams on many of the 54 shared rivers, said the BNP secretary general in a statement issued marking the anniversary of the Farakka Day.

He put the blame on the Awami League government, the first since independence, for initiating the crisis by greenlighting India’s Farakka dam project on the transboundary Ganges river.

On 16 May 1976, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the undisputed leader of the masses, called a long march towards Farakka, demanding Bangladesh’s fair share in the Ganges river in line with international law, Fakhrul said.

Responding to the call, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country joined the march, he noted.

Nearly five decades since the march, the unilateral withdrawal of river water is causing ecological imbalance, water scarcity and negative impact on biodiversity in northwestern Bangladesh, Fakhrul said.

Initially, India wanted to operate the Farakka dam on Ganges river experimentally for a few days. The then Awami League government gave permission, ignoring the public opinion.

However, the dam continues to operate to this day, turning into a “death trap,” Fakhrul said.