Tipaimukh Project
New Delhi, Nov 23 : With concerns growing about the harm the Tipaimukh dam will wreak on the ecology, agriculture and fisheries downstream, Bangladesh yesterday urged India to hold consultations with it and share all relevant information before it implemented the hydroelectric project.
The 1,500-MW project is located on the Barak river near India's Manipur-Mizoram border just off Bangladesh's Zakiganj border in Sylhet. The Barak enters Bangladesh as the rivers Surma and Kushiyara.
Concern heightened in Bangladesh after news broke that India's state-owned enterprise NHPC had signed a Promoter's Agreement on October 22 with the government of Manipur and Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd to set up a joint venture company for the implementation of the controversial project.
“The government of India should share all relevant details of the proposed project in full transparency and also about any further step that it may take in connection with the project,” said a statement by Bangladesh's foreign ministry yesterday.
“This will be critical in avoiding any gap in understanding or allaying concerns in Bangladesh,” said the statement, which was issued five days after the news broke.
“Bangladesh, as a co-riparian country, would like to underscore the need for prior consultations before there is any intervention on common rivers like the Barak,” it said.
In its response to the development, the opposition BNP yesterday announced a daylong hartal on December 1 in Sylhet, which it said would be hardest hit by the Indian move.
India defends the project by suggesting that it is a hydroelectric project with provision to control floods and there is no plan to divert water for irrigation.
Experts in Bangladesh say the massive embankment dam will disrupt the flow of the Barak river and adversely affect agriculture and fisheries downstream. They also note that the project sits on an earthquake region and will cause havoc in the event of a quake.
Rights groups in Manipur have also been vocal in their protest. Their concern is that the project will displace thousands of local people.
The Bangladesh foreign ministry statement said its attention had been drawn to recent press reports about the signing of a Promoters' Agreement concerning the proposed Tipaimukh Dam project, in the Indian State of Manipur, on the river Barak.
Dhaka has also noted that the Indian external affairs ministry in a statement yesterday said the proposed project was designed to be “a hydroelectric project with provision to control floods”. As such, this project would not involve any diversion of water for purposes of irrigation.
The Dhaka statement said Bangladesh further took note of the reiteration in the press briefing that “…during the visit of H. E. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India in January 2010, our Prime Minister had reiterated the assurance that India would not take steps on the Tipaimukh project that would adversely impact on Bangladesh. The assurance was again reiterated during the visit of our Prime Minister to Bangladesh in September 2011”.
No adverse impact of Tipaimukh on Bangladesh
Taken aback by loud protest in Bangladesh over the proposed Tipaimukh Dam Projects in Manipur, the Government of India is toying with the idea of inviting another delegation from the neighbouring country to visit the Project site.
Highly placed sources said that India wanted the Bangladeshis to see for themselves that there was no dam, no construction and no project work going on in the area. The Project would require environment clearance, said highly placed sources.
Meanwhile, India has on Tuesday formally declared that Tipaimukh project would have no adverse impact on Bangladesh.
An official spokesperson said, the only recent development pertaining to the project has been the signing of a ‘Promoter’s Agreement’ with the purpose of setting up a Joint Venture Company (JVC) between the Government of Manipur, NHPC Ltd. and Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVN) on October 22.
A 10-member Bangladesh Parliamentary delegation led by Abdur Razzak, former Water Resources Minister and current Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources, had visited India in July 2009 at the invitation of Government of India.
It had been clarified to the delegation that the proposed project was a hydro-electric project with provision to control floods and that this would not involve diversion of water on account of irrigation.
“Subsequently, during the visit of Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2010, our Prime Minister had reiterated the assurance that India would not take steps on the Tipaimukh project that would adversely impact on Bangladesh. The assurance was again reiterated during the visit of our Prime Minister to Bangladesh in September 2011”.
In Bangladesh, reports of floating of a JVC has led to huge furor, and Bangladesh Foreign Ministry issued a statement, disclosing that India had promised to give details of the deal signed recently by National Hydro Power Company, Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited and the Manipur Government to build the 1,500-MW project.
Media in Bangladesh have reported that the Tipaimukh Dam would decrease water flow in the Barak River during the monsoon, reduce the navigability of the Surma and the Kushiyara, dry up some water bodies and increase riverbank erosion 100-150km downstream.
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