The water level on the Padma River increased on average by 11 centimeters in the last two days, following the release of water through the gates of Farakka Barrage in India. However, the water in the river is still flowing below the danger level. Earlier, the Indian authorities decided to release about 11 lakhs cusec of water by opening up all the 100 gates of the Farakka Barrage to mitigate the flood situation in Bihar. With the release of water in the upstream, the rise in water levels at different points of Ganges and Padma is likely to continue for the next 4-5 days, Executive Engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Sajjad Hossain told The Independent yesterday evening.
“It’s true that water has started to rise—but it is hard to predict whether such increase in the water level may cause devastating floods because the water level of the other rivers like the Jamuna has decreased significantly,” he said in reply to a query.
“According to our projection, even if the water rises to the danger level, it may not cause flood inside Bangladesh,” he added. According to Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, the water level at Pankha station increased by 12 cm yesterday, which was 17 metre on Wednesday. The water level at Chapainawabganj station rose by 12 cm after it stood at 22.21 metre on Wednesday. At the Harding Bridge station, the water level increased by 11 cm which was 13.09m on Wednesday and in Rajshahi, the water increased by 11 cm yesterday. On Sunday, Bihar chief minister Kumar said, “It is not possible to protect Bihar from devastating floods, without the removal of the Farakka barrage on the Ganga.” Kumar, on Tuesday, met the Indian prime minister in New Delhi and requested him to send a team of experts to assess the “unprecedented” situation in his state. He demanded prompt action on a national silt management policy. He also reportedly expressed his concerns that the Farakka barrage in West Bengal had led to silting in the Ganga and exacerbated the floods in Bihar. Farakka barrage is located on the Bengal-Jharkhand border and meant to divert the Ganga water into the Hooghly river and help in desilting process. This, in turn, has made the river bed shallow and floods have become an annual phenomenon in Bihar, which falls in the catchment area.