Flood situation in Bangladesh not due to release of waters from Indian dam on Gumti river: MEA
New Delhi, August 22
India on Thursday turned down suggestions that floods in the neighbouring Bangladesh had been caused by opening of gates of a dam across the Gumti river in Tripura.
The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying it has seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti river in Tripura.
“This is factually not correct,” the statement said.
The statement said the catchment areas of the Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.
The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam.
The Dumbur dam is located over 120 km upstream of the India-Bangladesh border. The dam is just about 30 metres in height that generates power feeding into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura.
Along the 120 km river course in India, there are three water-level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2 in Tripura.
Heavy rain has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed.
