Allaying concerns that the current flood situation in Bangladesh was caused by the release of waters from Tripura’s Dumbur dam, India said on Thursday that this was not correct.

The Ministry of External Affairs said the catchment areas of Gumti River have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year and the flood in Bangladesh was ‘primarily due to waters from these large catchments’.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, ‘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 the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not

‘We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti River that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.

Ministry of External Affairs said again, ‘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 from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura.

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.

Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real-time flood data to Bangladesh.

Data showing a rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems in communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.

Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting suffering to people on both sides and requires close cooperation towards resolving them.’

Finally, MEA said, ‘As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions.’

Source: MEA, India