Tipai dam may trigger strong tremor: expert

The proposed Tipaimukh Dam project taken by the Indian government may trigger a massive earthquake in the region claiming around 30 million lives in Bangladesh, fears an expert, reports UNB. "The Tipaimukh Dam site is located in a zone highly vulnerable to tremor. A series of massive earthquakes occurred in the zone in the last 110 years," Dr SI Khan, former UN water and environmental expert, told a roundtable in the city Sunday. He said a 500-foot deep water reservoir will be created for the construction of Tipaimukh Dam which will pile a pressure of 160 tonnes per square metre beneath the dam, unleashing a massive earthquake in the region. "A strong tremor will damage the dam sending its water downstream which will ultimately wash away people in the Meghna basin. There's also a possibility of more devastating effects," Dr Khan told the roundtable. International Farakka Committee (IFC), New York, and IFC Bangladesh jointly organised the roundtable titled 'Tipaimukh Dam: Options for Bangladesh' at the National Press Club. Chaired by IFC Bangladesh president and former Vice Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Dr Jasim Uddin Ahmed, the roundtable was addressed, among others, by language movement veteran Abdul Matin, Dr Zafarullah Khan, secretary general of IFC, New York, Syed Tipu Sultan, Engr Abdul Quader and New Nation editor Mostafa Kamal Majumder.