As River Teesta continues drying up and its ecosystem remains under threat following withdrawal of water from its up-streams, the government is going to restore the flow of the river in northern part of the country by adopting a Tk 8,500 crore project.

The government of China has already expressed its interest to implement the project titled ‘Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project’, said sources in the ministry of water resources.

Power Construction Corporation of China (Powerchina) has already completed a feasibility study and also prepared a master plan to implement the project, the sources added.

While talking to The Independent, Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources Kabir Bin Anwar said they have written to different donor agencies and countries like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), China government and the World Bank (WB) seeking required fund to implement the project.

Of them, he said, the Chinese government has expressed their interest to provide fund for the project implementation. “We’ll be able to make a big water-reservoir by restoring the flows of the River Teesta, its branches and a number of canals through dredging and it’ll help the people of greater Rangpur area cultivate the land,” he said.

According to the secretary, “We need to reserve water only four months from December to March every year. Because, the farmers face water crisis only during those four months. Upon completing the project, it’ll be possible to preserve water, which will help yield bumper crops and upgrade the socio-economic condition in Rangpur area by recording a new economic growth opportunity on both the banks of River Teesta.”

Sources concerned said, main objectives of the projects are: implementing the river training works like groynes, embankment and bank-protection work to control Teesta river regime; building new embankment and repairing the existing embankmenta so as to form the flood prevention and mitigation system; conduct capital dredging and maintenance dredging for restoration of Teesta river system; channel dredging for round-the-year navigation and implementation of terminals to improve river navigation and transportation capacity; do land reclamation and development by the dredging materials and its unique utilisation; and increase dry season water availability in the rivers, canals and ponds with river basin development and management by way of storing water and also mitigating environmental and social impact with the restoration of ecosystem.

According to a feasibility study report, the current situation and main problems of the 113Km-long River Teesta is an important tributary of River Brahmaputra and the fourth largest trans-boundary river in greater Rangpur.

It originated from Chitamoolake of Sikkim in the Himalayas, which flows through Darjeeling, Jolpaiguri and Kuchbihar in India, enters into Bangladesh through Dimla upazila of Nilphamari district and finally falls into River Brahmaputra at Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district. The total length of the river is 315 kilometres, of which about 113 Km is in Bangladesh and the area of the whole basin is 11,252 square kilometres.

TH