The Proposed Tipaimukh Dam

Prof Mustafizur Rahman Tarafdar


TIPAIMUKH dam located in Monipur state of India, by all definitions falls into the category of a large high head [162m] dam. Though learnt to be a hydel power project for generation of 1500 MW electricity, it will definitely work as a flood control dam for Monipur and the neighbouring Mizoram state and irrigation may be practiced in suitable land areas along the 1 km stretch of the Barak river up to the Bangladesh border and by the periphery of the reservoir perimeter.

Since the river Barak-Surma-Kushyara is an international river, Bangladesh as a lower riparian country should have an equitable share of water and an access to the deign details of the project, planning and design etc. It is learnt that the construction that started in 2007 was halted due to national and international uproar and resistance against probable environmental degradation inside and outside Indian territory and unilateral withdrawal of water of the river which will turn Bangladesh's north-eastern lush-green fertile soil into a sandy dry waste land, during the dry reason.

Such action tantamounts to violation of international convention which controls/regulates the equitable share to water of international rivers/watercourses. The above topics were discussed in many forums in different meetings and seminars in Dhaka and Sylhet and in at least two published books, 'No to Tipaimukh Dam' and 'Controversial Tipaimukh Dam: Overall Review'.

If we have access to the planning and deign details of the dam we can see, apart from hydro-power generation, what else the project entails. Whether it has a component of irrigation in particular, as for irrigation they will use winter dry season flow which otherwise would have been flowing downstream for ecological and other uses in the lower riparian country. For any large dam the release of water in the low flow period for ecological use is mandatory by international convention as well as custom.

For every large dam there is an important study called "Dam Break Study". In olden days this study was done by thumb-rule calculation without use of modern technology. In USA dams constructed in the 30's had serious incidences of collapse. Now the computer assembles all study, data and design eriteria to ascertain the stability and strength of the dam against possible break/breach due to some acts of God like catastrophic hydrological events, severe earthquake or other events (like war). Different models are used to determine as to how to minimize high flood damages that might cause death and destruction downstream. In this case Bangladesh will be the poor victim. Tipaimukh dam impounding "billions" of cube meter (M3) of water, will naturally cause catastrophic floods (in case of dam break) for the dam is large and high.

The writer has the experience of review and analysis of a Chinese-built large and high dam in Cameroon, Africa, 40km east of Nigerian border on the large Benue river in 1980. In Nigeria its dam break study was performed. Design flood for this large dam was taken as 50,000-year flood. In the high hilly drainage basin of the dam, there was very high rainfall with consequent abnormal rise of water level of the reservoir in 1988 flood season which menacingly threatened the very stability of the dam, with water almost overtopping the dam. It was a rock-fill dam on which overtopping might have resulted in washing away of the dam with catastrophic consequences in both countries.

However, I am citing this grim episode for lessons for Tipaimukh dam design. If we can have an access to its design details, we can verify what flood frequency they had applied to arrive at design flood. As for any faulty design, if any catastrophe occurs, the sad outcome will fall on us in Bangladesh as a result of dam break.

For a dam of such magnitude and dimension a 100,000 to 500,000-year design flood should be considered adequate, particularly when the location of the dam is in a hilly earthquake-prone and a high intensity rain region of India.

Adverse effects of the Tipaimukh dam will be staggeringly devastating and damaging for Bangladesh. Environmental degradation, economic crisis and hydrological drought will cause irreversible damage. Suddenly, the free flowing Surma and Kushyara rivers will turn dry and remain so for a major portion of the year (Nov-May) disrupting agriculture, irrigation, drinking water supply, navigation etc. Six to seven months dry conditions will stop/lessen recharge of ground water which over the years will lower the ground water level, affecting all dug wells, shallow tubewells, as it happened in south western region of Bangladesh as a result of drastic withdrawal of the Ganges water at Farakka. Agriculture that depends on surface as well as ground water will be affected seriously.

Surma-Kushyara with its maze of numerous tributaries and distributaries support agriculture, irrigation navigation, drinking water supply, fisheries, wildlife in numerous haors and low lying areas in the entire Sylhet division and some peripheral areas of Dhaka division. The river system also supports internal navigation, wildlife in haors, industries like fertilizer, electricity, gas etc.

The rosy, prosperous and healthy scenario may soon turn into history causing despondency desperation and misery to the people inhabiting the zone which is known for abundance of water, lush green field of crops and fish sanctuary.

Massive environmental degradation will occur, drastically affecting weather and climate, turning a wet cooler habitat into a hot uncomfortable cauldron. The severity of micro-climate causing heat and dry conditions will gradually increase in intensity spreading over a large area over the years. It may be mentioned that rainfall that the area gets for 4 to 5 months and flood water that will be released from the dam for a short period will not be enough to replenish the ground water. Climate and environmental change will force the farmers to reluctantly resort to planting low-yielding drought-resistant crops (unknown to them).

Scarcity of water will cause siltation on river beds. When high rainfall will occur in the catchment area of the dam, enormous quantity of sediment-laden flood water will be released which will cause severity of flood in the Surma and Kushyara channels which would be already raised for low flow. This will further raise the water level causing floods in adjoining additional areas.

Navigation in river channels in the Meghna (combined Surma and Kushyara) will face depleted water flow and consequent sedimentation and severity of flooding in the wet season. Surface irrigation will be in jeopardy. The Meghna up to Chandpur will suffer from the adverse effects. The Meghna-Padma will have low flow which will accentuate saline backwater intrusion in the Padma channel which is already affected by the low flow for the withdrawal of water of the Ganges at Farakka.

The writer visited Bhumipol and Sirikit Dam sites in Thailand in mid seventy's. Though the dams were completed about 5/6 years ago the reservoir water level did not reach design level and the filling of the reservoir was continuing unabated during dry and rainy seasons. It was ascertained that water flowing (a good per cent of the impoundment) unabated through the outlet meant for release of water to maintain ecological balance in the downstream channel. The writer designed four major dams in Nigeria where, in all of them, there are separate adequate outlets for irrigation, water supply and hydropower and ecological flow for environment and emergency outlet for rapid evacuation of water for the safety of the dam.

It is expected that Tipaimukh dam will also allow ecological flow along with the equitable share of water for the international river Barak-Surma-Kushyara for Bangladesh as per entitlement negotiation.

Our government (JRC) may request India to postpone, better stop the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam if possible, through bi-lateral diplomacy or else seek intervention by United Nations. Sharing of water of Indus basin was negotiated between India and Pakistan with the assistance of the World Bank. A dispute on river Danube between Czechoslovakia later Slovakia and Hungary was referred to the International Court of Justice. In our own country Farakka issue was resolved bilaterally with India.

Our government (JRC) should soon start negotiation on equitable sharing of water according to our entitlement as a lower riparian of the international river Barak-Surma-Kushyara as per UN Convention. Unilateral withdrawal would be a gross violation of UN Convention that regulates the use of water of international rivers/water courses. Any delay in negotiation might end up in a pathetic situation, causing irreversible environmental, economic and hydrological chaos.

We may ask for design/survey data, drawings/maps etc, and EIA report prepared by the dam authority in order to verify if the Dam Break Study was made and whether EIA included adverse effects and mitigation measures thereof for the lower riparian Bangladesh. Environment-concerned institutions and individuals may even intensify resistance against the Tipaimukh Dam, as it is still in the rudimentary stage of constriction.

(The writer, a water resources expert, is a professor of civil engineering in the World University of Bangladesh. He was formerly in World Bank, Washington DC, UN/FAO, Nigeria, Planning Commission and BWDB, Dhaka.)


Source: http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/07/06/news0123.htm

Indian High Commissioner provokes opposition on Tipaimukh

M. Serajul Islam

THE Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti has taken the centre stage in our volatile politics, albeit for the wrong reasons. He has incurred the wrath of the BNP who has demanded his withdrawal immediately. According to media reports, the High Commissioner made disparaging remarks about the BNP without naming it for opposition to the proposed Tipaimukh dam at a seminar on regional connectivity sponsored by the India-Bangladesh Friendship Society. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni was present as the chief guest.

The Indian High Commissioner has also been in the news before his controversial speech while making rounds in the Secretariat, explaining to the Ministers that the Tipaimukh dam will not be harmful for Bangladesh and that it would not be constructed in violation of international law. His efforts have been reasonably successful as some of the Ministers have supported him in the media; although, outside this small circle, significant opposition has been building up against the dam across a wide section of the people.

In fact, environmental groups and the civil society in Bangladesh were already at work articulating public opinion against Tipaimukh dam before the High Commissioner's speech. In Manipur where the dam will provide electricity and control floods, indigenous people have described it as a "death trap." Environmental groups there also have fiercely objected to this dam. There is a whole literature available on the internet on vicious opposition inside India to Tipaimukh. Quite expectedly, the BNP, sensing the political potentials, has been leading the opposition to the dam.

The issue has all it takes to arouse passion in Bangladesh. If constructed, it will affect Bangladesh's northeast the same way the Farakka Barrage has started environmental degradation in the north-western part of the country. This dam, like the Farakka, is on an international river that India has planned without proper consultation with Bangladesh as the lower riparian. The site of the dam is on an earthquake prone zone that raises the possibility of devastating the north eastern part of Bangladesh with water if the dam is destroyed by an earthquake in future.

The High Commissioner has not cared to take note of the passion building in Bangladesh or opposition in his own country over the dam. He said instead that Bangladesh has no position under international law to object to the project. The High Commissioner has dismissed the opposition to the dam as “India phobia” implying that the BNP is responsible for it, although to a vast majority of the people of Bangladesh, this is patriotism. In fact, thanks to the High Commissioner's efforts, he has brought “India phobia” and patriotism to mean the same in the context of the Tipaimukh issue.

The high commissioner's explanation that the proposed dam would not violate international law and, therefore, Bangladesh has no right of objection is very simplistic. There are serious legal issues that could be subject of a separate article. Additionally, Bangladesh Water Development Board officials in 2003 had informed through the media that the Tipaimukh dam is part of a grand plan to connect thirty international rivers that flow from India to Bangladesh by building man-made canals and dams to divert water from India's flood prone northeastern region to the relatively arid central provinces. The high commissioner has not mentioned about these serious matters concerning the dam that the public of Bangladesh are learning nevertheless as they become more and more concerned with the potential dangers.

In Bangladesh, we are more tolerant than any other capital in giving leeway to foreign ambassadors and high commissioners over their activities as guests in our country. We tolerate them even when they address press conferences to openly accuse us of being corrupt, ungovernable, etc. in contravention of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In this case, the Indian high commissioner has trashed public sentiment over a very volatile issue and provoked the BNP, a major party in Bangladesh that has twice formed the government, leaving it with little choice than to react in the manner in which they did. He disparagingly made statements that questioned the expertise of Bangladeshi experts and accused opponents of the dam for “lies” in projecting the dangers of the dam.

The high commissioner should have been summoned to the Foreign Ministry for an explanation for these remarks, particularly those hinted at the BNP. Unfortunately that was not possible because the foreign minister was present when the high commissioner made his remarks. However, she chose to remain silent and gave the BNP an opportunity to shoot at two targets with one bullet. They have been looking for an opportunity to confront the high commissioner for his views on Tipaimukh in recent times. He has given them this opportunity in a silver platter by his speech. Dipu Moni's silence has come as a “political bonus” to the BNP as they called for her resignation together with the withdrawal of the Indian high commissioner.

The foreign minister seems to be finding herself increasingly on sticky wickets while facing the media. In this instance, the Indian high commissioner spoke before she did. She thus had the opportunity to react to the remarks. If she had an antenna attuned to diplomatic norms and deviations, she would have instantly realized that she has been put on a spot, just like she was when an Indian journalist caught her on the wrong foot with the question on “buffer state” during the visit of the Indian foreign minister in February.

Indian diplomats are well known for their professionalism and their calm under testing circumstances. They never reacted in the manner the present Indian high commissioner has even when provoked. In fact, Indian environmentalists oppose this dam more forcefully than ours do and that makes the tone of the high commissioner's remarks difficult to comprehend. During the last BNP government, the present high commissioner's predecessor was made to listen to an anti-Indian diatribe from then Bangladesh foreign minister in a seminar. She retained her calm during the seminar, which was then considered by everyone as a professional reaction to an unprofessional conduct.

In February this year, the Indian foreign minister visited Bangladesh as special envoy and met the army chief without meeting the leader of the opposition. In April, the Indian foreign secretary also met the army chief. These meetings have raised questions and concerns in Bangladesh about Indian intentions. The high commissioner's speech enhances these concerns because it suggests that India's diplomacy vis-à-vis Bangladesh is becoming more assertive and arrogant and less helpful for development of better Bangladesh-India relations.

Bangladesh is a deltaic plane where the rivers that flow from India through her into the Bay of Bengal give her the fertility to sustain one of the most densely populated parts of the world. The grand Indian Plan will turn this fertile deltaic plane into part desert and part land unfit for agriculture due to rising salinity. The proposed Tipaimukh dam will carry on this dangerous process started by the Farakka barrage by destroying the fertile Sylhet division that receives water from the Barak River into its Surma and Kushiara rivers. The high commissioner has suggested generation of electricity as a main reason for construction of the Tipaimukh dam. In fact, it will generate only 400 MW of electricity. If India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan cooperate for building dams in Nepal where the terrain is natural for such projects, then there would be ten times more electricity with the added advantage of controlling dangerous floods in these parts. The argument of electricity generation from Tipaimukh dam is therefore a very weak one indeed compared to environmental threats and damages to Bangladesh-India relations that it would surely cause.

The prime minister correctly sensed that the Indian high commissioner has raised a politically harmful controversy for her party and Bangladesh. She has therefore asked the BNP to send its own experts to study Tipaimukh, whose opinion would be considered in adopting Bangladesh's response. The ministers have also stopped talking about the dam. The high commissioner's speech may in fact become a conduit in bridging the AL-BNP divide against Tipaimukh for its dangers to Bangladesh. It should now move the foreign ministry to enforce norms in the way ambassadors act in Bangladesh.

The writer is a former Ambassador to Japan and Director, Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies

Tipaimukh Dam: BCU protests Indian envoy's remarks

DU Correspondent

Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU), a left-leaning student organisation, yesterday demanded expulsion of Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty for his "audacious comment" on local experts who are raising voice against Tipaimukh Dam project.

At a rally on the Dhaka University campus, BCU leaders said India has taken an initiative to build the dam on Borak river without discussing the issue with the Bangladesh government.

Once the dam is built, it will have disastrous impacts on the economy and the environment of Bangladesh, they added.

The BCU leaders also stressed the need to forge a mass movement across the country against the Tipaimukh dam.

The navigability of two rivers -- Surma and Kushiara -- would seriously be hampered seriously if the dam is constructed, they said.

They also called on the government to clarify its stance on the Tipaimukh dam.

BCU general secretary Manabendra Dev, Khan Asaduzzaman Masum, Ferdous Ahmed Ujjal, Mahamudur Rahman Birol and Abu Toab Apu spoke at the rally.

Earlier, the student organisation took out a protest procession.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=95248

Bangladesh government faces political furore over Indian dam project

Dhaka, July 4 (IANS) The Bangladesh government is coming under increasing pressures from its own ministers and ruling Awami League lawmakers to hold urgent bilateral talks with India, which is planning to build a dam on the Barak river the two neighbours share, a media report here said Saturday.

Pressures are mounting as the government prepares to send a delegation of parliamentarians and experts to visit the project site. No date for the visit has been announced.

Many Awami League lawmakers and cabinet ministers believe that the proposed dam at Tipaimukh across the Barak river might cause ecological disaster in downstream Bangladesh, the New Age newspaper reported.

They want bilateral talks with India even as the opposition parties have joined protesting environmentalists, NGOs and other opinion makers, some of whom have taken to the streets.

A number of lawmakers and ministers of the Awami League-led coalition government said Friday that the government would uphold the country’s interest in any bilateral dialogue on the dam and equitable sharing of the common rivers’ waters.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith opined that the project, if implemented, would be harmful for the lower riparian country.

“The proposed dam is not good for our nation as it is against the environment and nature,” said the minister.

The issue has generated a blame-game between the ruling party and the opposition, each charging the other with “silence” instead of lodging protests with India.

Muhith said the Awami League’s protests against the project were “ignored” by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

India had completed the design of the dam and floated an international tender when Bangladesh was ruled by the BNP and its Islamist ally the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Muhith, however, urged all concerned to wait until the Bangladesh delegation submits its report after visiting the project site.

“As India has invited us to send a delegation to visit the site, we should make our decision after it submits its report,” he added.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told the New Age that the problems raised by the Tipaimukh dam should be resolved through consultation.

“It won’t be good neighbourly behaviour if India constructs the dam without consulting Bangladesh,” said Textile and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui.

Start process to remove Indian envoy: MP

Dhaka, July 02 (bdnews24.com)

A BNP MP has asked the government to initiate the process to get Indian high commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty withdrawn for "breaching" diplomatic norms.

Mahbub Uddin Khokan, the lone opposition member on the parliamentary standing committee on the foreign ministry, also urged the ministry on Thursday to go public with the data on the controversial dam.

"The foreign minister herself has admitted that the high commissioner has gone beyond diplomatic norms.

"Therefore, I have demanded at the meeting that the foreign ministry send a letter to the India government for withdrawal of the Indian high commissioner," Khokan told bdnews24.com in front of the cabinet committee room in parliament building.

"In the past, many envoys breached diplomatic norms, but no actions followed," he quoted foreign minister Dipu Moni as saying.

The committee chairman, A H Mahmood Ali, said Khokan only raised the issue and the committee did not discuss the issue.

"I don't want to comment on this as the foreign minister (on Wednesday) talked about it," Ali told bdnews24.com after the meeting.

"The Tipaimukh dam is the issue of the water resources ministry. The foreign ministry has nothing to do with it," said the chairman.

Dipu Moni declined to talk to the reporters.

Khokan said, "I have also asked foreign ministry to send letters to the Indian authorities so that they facilitate the BNP's delegation which will visit the Tipaimukh dam site soon.

Dipu Moni said on Wednesday that the Indian high commissioner may have breached diplomatic norms when he spoke about the controversial dam issue last month.

She also rejected Chakravarty's view and said Dhaka could resolve the contention over dam construction through dialogue with New Delhi in line with international laws on common rivers and Bangladesh-India relations.

She said her ministry would take necessary action against the high commissioner if he had indeed breached diplomatic norms by his comments.

The BNP last month demanded that Chakravarty be withdrawn for what the party said was his "meddling in the internal affairs of Bangladesh".

Chakravarty, at a seminar on South Asian connectivity on June 21, had called the Bangladeshi water experts who opposed the controversial Tipaimukh dam "so-called experts" in the presence of Dipu Moni.

The envoy also took a swipe at the BNP-led alliance for opposing against the Bangladesh-India Ganges water-sharing treaty and for anti-India comments, which he said were aimed at gaining "political mileage"

Tipaimukh Dam Controversy: Bangladesh may take action against Indian envoy

Ashfaq Wares Khan

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has delved into the Tipaimukh Dam controversy by suggesting that the government may take action against Indian High Commissioner Pinak Chakravarty for breaching diplomatic protocol.

Moni’s comments came amid a heated debated surrounding the Tipaimukh hydro-electric project, with opposition parties and critics becoming increasingly hostile to the proposal.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s assurances of sending a team of Bangladeshi MPs to visit the site has not stemmed the wave of opposition attacks of the proposed dam.

Chakravarty had recently termed Bangladeshi critics of the Tipaimukh Dam as “so-called experts” who belonged to a ‘particular group’ having ‘India-phobia’.

Reacting to Chakravarty’s critics on Wednesday, Moni said, “Personally, I think Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty might not have acted within his limits.”

She warned that the government might also take action against the High Commissioner.

“A foreign diplomat has some limitation on what to say and what not…If he had violated diplomatic rules, then actions might be taken against him through proper channel,” she said.

Moni’s comments are a turnaround on comments made last week suggesting both New Delhi and Dhaka would cooperate over the matter for a ‘win-win’ situation.

She said India had assured Bangladesh that it would not take any steps to harm it.

Several experts from Bangladesh warn that the proposed 1,500MW Tipaimukh hydro-electric project on the Barak river at junction of Manipur, Assam and Mizoram, could dry up the rivers Surma and Kushiara in northeastern Sylhet.

Opposition groups in India, led by a collection of NGOs named committee against Tipaimukh Dam, claim the dam would submerge tribal land, affect cultivable land and displace thousands on the Indian side in Manipur.

We do not want to see Indian diplomats High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty in Bangladesh: the diplomat exceeds his limit

Anwarul Islam Mukul, North Carolina, USA

I sent a protest letter to Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty Wednesday July 23 2008 13:33:31 PM BDT. But he didn't answer. . The man is very arrogant, impolite right from day one of his tenure in Bangladesh.

Why Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni not protest at that time, after some days now she makes comments on that matter. It is not acceptable. I think She would not make any comment, if media were silent. As a foreign minister she is completely failed.

Here is the letter Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty didn't respond:

Incident verging on instability between both countries- India Bangladesh Border issue- Open Letter to Indian High Commissioner

To The Ambassador

The Indian Embassy

2536 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20008

Telephone: (202) 939 9806

Fax: (202) 797 4693

H.E. MR PINAK RANJAN CHAKRAVARTY, High Commissioner of India Dhaka, Bangladesh

July 18,2008

His Excellency

Ambassador Mr. Ronen Sen and

H.E.Mr. Pinak.Ranjan Chakaravarty

We, the Bangladeshi American, are deeply concerned and shocked by last night's (07/17/08) incident in Bangladesh Border,without provocation of the incident, violation & intrusion in the international border line of Bangladesh by Indian Security Force (BSF) occurred.

"On Behalf of Bangladeshi Americans, we are strongly protesting and condemn the alleged killing of two BDR personnel by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in the northern Chapai Nawabganj frontiers last night.

We pray for the salvation of the souls of the two brave Bangladeshis who have been killed. They showed extreme zero tolerance and to guard the motherland the protest and obstruct intrusion of Bangladesh territory.

"Our condolences and sympathy to the families on unfortunate demise of the two bereaved Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers Habilder Abdul Hannan Sarker and lance naik Krishnapada Saha.

We are demanding thorough investigation and justice of these horrible incidents and also punishment for all those who are responsible for these extreme acts, and also compensation for life for the two brave soldiers family livelihood maintenance.

We want your Government assurance with the crime and injustice of killing two Bangladesh Rifle soldiers. We consider it is a one step threat to instability of peace, Friendship & co-operation between two countries where dialogue of many agendas will be threatened, not to fulfill or continue companionship between the two countries.

We Muktijoddha (Freedom) Fighter's want proper investigation and that the culprit must be brought to justice. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you.