Teesta water sharing pact hasty

Teesta water sharing pact hasty: Expert

6 September 2011 - 8:32pm
India News
By IANS,

Kolkata: The draft Indo-Bangla Teesta water sharing agreement, which has irked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was "hastily authored" and not in tune with the United Nations protocol for trans-national water sharing, according to an expert.

Kalyan Rudra, an eminent geography professor, said Tuesday if the pact that reportedly proposes to share the Teesta river water with Bangladesh on a 52:48 basis comes through then the very purpose of the Teesta Barrage project would take a beating.

The barrage project - intending to provide irrigation water to the northern part of West Bengal and for generating electricity - was commissioned in 1976 and is still to be completed.

"Had the agreement been inked in its present form there would have been acute shortage of irrigation water in the lean months from December-April," Rudra, a former lecturer in Geography in Calcutta University, told IANS.

He said the Teesta Barrage project once completed would serve an irrigated area of 9,22,000 hectates, but so far caters to only 60,000 hectats.

Referring to the proposed treaty providing for sharing 33,000-50,000 cusecs water with Bangladesh, Rudra said from June-September the river has more water. In July the flow is the highest at 70,000 cusecs.

"From June-September the river has surplus water. But then during this season there is plenty of rain and irrigation is not required. It is in the lean season that irrigation is needed. In the lean season the river has between 3,500-4,000 cusecs only."

"So how can we give so much water? I think this draft is based on inflated and fictitious database," said Rudra, who is attached to the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.

The Teesta originates from Tso Lhamo Lake in north Sikkim, flows for virtually the entire length of the Himalayan state, then runs through Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal, before merging with the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh.

He said to make the treaty pragmatic, it should have referred to the volume of water in the river without only drawing up a 52:48 formula.

He added that the flow to north Bengal would decrease further with the proposed 23 low dams in Sikkim.

Rudra also found fault with the pact for not taking into account the water generated in Bangladesh, as 16 percent of the river is in the neighbouring country.

"This agreement only deals with the Indian water entering into Bangladesh. It does not take into account the water generated in Bangladesh due to rain."

Bangladesh has a catchment area of 12,361 sq km and 2.l17 billion cubic metres of rainfall is generated there. "Annually, from rainfall we get 12.26 billion cubic metres in the catchment area. But the amount generated in Bangladesh has not been considered while drawing up the agreement," he said.

Rudra said as per the United Nations guideline on transnational sharing of water, there has to be an equitable and reasonable agreement. "Demographic and socio-economic factors like the population involved, the catchment area, and whether the population has alternative water sources - these issues have to be addressed. But this does not seem to be the case here."

"The issues like the water level required to maintain the ecological flow have also not been addressed. It should have kept in mind the amount of water needed in the river for preserving bio-diversity.

"The treaty has been drafted hastily and there is no science and sustainability," he maintained.