People of Bangladesh resent the presence of the Farakka Barrage in India because of its adverse impact—reduced flow of the Ganga during summer and increasing salinity—water resources minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said yesterday. “Criticism should have good reasons; wrong criticism won’t be accepted. The Farakka barrage does not cause floods in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s people never wanted the Farakka barrage; even the chief minister of Bihar in India has demanded its removal,” the minister said at a seminar. The Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) had organised the seminar on ‘Floods and river erosion 2016’, at the city’s Water Resources Planning Organisation (WARPO) Bhaban.
Senior secretary of water resources ministry, Zafar Ahmed Khan, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chairman Commodore Mozammel Huq, IWM executive director M Monowar Hossain, WARPO director-general Sarafat Hossain, Bangladesh Water Development Board additional chief engineer Mahfuzur Rahman, and BUET professor Ataur Rahman, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Sohel Masud, director, flood management division, and Mir Mostafa Kamal, director, river engineering division, presented two separate keynote papers on ‘Floods 2016’ and ‘River erosion’, respectively.    
“Around 50,000 people become homeless due to river erosion every year. Steps would be taken to resolve national disasters like floods and river erosion, by using mathematical modelling techniques,” Anisul Islam Mahmud said. He also suggested that engineers take steps to give permanent shape to submersible embankments across the country.
“The country’s 44-year-old embankments are fighting against natural disasters. Projects on the embankments should be taken up, to raise them by another metre. The existing embankments would be further strengthened by keeping the provision of one-metre hike,” the water resources minister said.
“We don’t get proper data and information from India, regarding weather forecasts. If we do, Bangladesh can take steps, in advance, to protect people from floods,” Mahfuzur Rahman said.
“The government should construct flood shelters in flood-prone areas. The dredging of rivers is must, to increase their water-carrying capacity. Moreover, forestry programmes should be launched to reduce soil erosion,” Prof. Ataur Rahman said.
Experts at the seminar said geographic location and weather were responsible for floods in Bangladesh, and stressed the need to upgrade the flood-forecasting system.
They wanted the government to probe the reasons behind the breaching embankments, suggesting the government should find out whether there was any negligence on the part of BWDB officials, behind such breaches, causing floods in many parts of the country.