International Farakka Committee on Saturday demanded the implementation of the Teesta Master Plan to protect thirty million people living in its basin in Bangladesh from heavy flood and river banks erosion.
Atiqur Rahman Salu, chairman of IFC, voiced the demand in an opinion exchange meeting at the Abdus Salam Hall of the Jatiya Press Club, reports UNB.
The IFC chairman said this while the promise for signing a treaty on the Teesta is lingering on for 12 years. In the dry season flow of the river is being diverted unilaterally from the Gazal Doba Barrage in West Bengal, India for more than two decades.
No change to this unfortunate plight of the Teesta is in sight, he said adding, "We therefore believe that the government of Bangladesh should urgently take sustainable measures to minimize the adverse effects of drought-flood vagaries to the people of Teesta Basin in Bangladesh."
Dr S.I. Khan, senior vice-president, IFC Bangladesh, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, coordinator, Ataur Rahman Ata, joint secretary of IFC, and Rafiqul Islam Azad, former president of Dhaka Reporters Unity, were present at the opinion exchange and answered questions of journalists.
Atiqur Rahman Salu said no treaty has been signed on the Teesta although the two countries were supposed to do so in 2011. The irony is that even in this rainy season Nilphamari, Kurigram and Gaibandha districts have experienced several waves of flood and riverbank erosion.
He said devastating floods in the rainy season and dry rivers and drought in the dry season have brought environmental disasters to Bangladesh.
"Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to go on a visit to India soon. It is our belief that she would discuss with the Indian Prime Minister in clear terms the plight of world's largest delta Bangladesh that has originated from the common rivers," he said.
He also said this is urgent because being cut off from the common rivers the lush green environment of the country is getting destroyed day by day, damaging agriculture, breeding and feeding grounds of indigenous fish, and industry. People are losing livelihoods and becoming displaced.
The IFC chairman noted that China has come up with an idea to implement a Teesta management and restoration master plan with nearly $1 billion in loan (about 10,000 crore Taka). The Power Construction Corporation or Power China wants to implement the master plan. Work on this project was supposed to begin in 2021, but has not started yet.
