Letters to the editor
Imperative : To build the Padma Barrage at the soonest
Sir,
It appears that the government is bent on starting the long awaited Padma Barrage Project. Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina declared the determination of her government to start work on this project at the earliest and implement it within a short time frame. The PM declared this in a meeting of senior officials of the Water Resources Ministry sometime ago.
It needs recalling that the Padma Barrage Project has been on the planning board for a long time. It was conceived ever since neighbouring India established the Farraka Barrage on the Ganges and started withdrawing waters from it reducing its flow in Bangladesh. But regrettably actual work to implement the Padma Barrage project inside Bangladesh ebbed and flowed over the years ; hardly decisive actions were noted to set it up. Some governments took significant interests in it while others abandoned the forward moves hoping that better observance of the water sharing treaty with India on the Ganges would make it unnecessary.
But after so many years, it seems to have crystallised among policy makers in Bangladesh that Bangladesh must create its own capacities to cope with river water shortages than endlessly waiting for India to give us our due and fair share of the same. Besides, it is a fact that flows of common river between the two countries have been actually turning poor especially in the dry months from less glacial melts or less rainfall than normal. Also users of waters of rivers have been fast increasing specially in India where they compounded the problem by creating all kinds of structures to withdraw waters from the common rivers. Under the circumstances, it only seems sensible that instead of suffering endlessly from river water scarcity in the dry season, Bangladesh should opt for its own long term solutions of the problem. The major one of them can be the Padma Barrage which would create a huge reservoir measuring some 165 kilometre in length from Pangsha in Rajbari district to Pankha in Chapainawabganj district. Its holding capacity is likely to be some 2,900 million metre cubes.
The dry season in Bangladesh lasts only a couple of months when waters of common rivers decrease. But for the rest of the year, specially in the rainy season, the rivers in Bangladesh are found flowing well with excess waters in them. This excess water would be sought for storing in the reservoir of the Padma Barrage with the aim of releasing the same into Padma and its tributaries for the couple of months when flows in them decrease drastically. Thus, the Barrage promises to offset the effects of the Farraka barrage over a large area of south-western Bangladesh by saving its ecology and helping its agriculture immensely through proper irrigation.
Thus, the Padma Barrage plan is timely and some policy makers consider its implementation no less than the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) in importance for the national economy. It is heartening to see that the Awami League led government of PM Sheikh Hasina has finally and conclusively decided to give attention to building the Padma Barrage. Indeed, this decision could not have come any sooner considering the long lingering suffering of Bangladesh from water scarcities in the dry season.
Meshbahuddin Ahmed
Kamalapur, Dhaka
