The government has no information that the Indian government starts building a dam on the common river Barak at Tipaimukh, foreign minister Dipu Moni said Monday.
The dam in the Indian province of Monipur would have severe consequences in lower riparian Bangladesh, water experts said.
According to Indian media reports construction of the Tipaimukh Damk would start in weeks.
Dipu Moni, however, said that the two governments would sign transit agreements during Indian primeminister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in September.
Asked about India's decision to build the controversial dam above Bangladesh, she said, 'The Indian prime minister assured our prime minister that India will not do anything harmful for Bangladesh.'
'We have no information that they have done anything moving away from that position,' she told a news conference when her attention was drawn to a news according to which the government of India gave approval to build the Tipaimukh dam.
Asked about the Awami League led government's position on providing transit to India, the foreign minister said, 'discussions are going on. I am hopeful that we will be able to sign several transit protocols during the Indian prime minister's visit.'
Singh is scheduled to pay
a two-day official visit to Dhaka beginning September 6.
'We have taken a political decision to provide the transit,' she said during prime minister's Sheikh Hasina's visit Delhi in January, 2010.
She said, 'Now the matter is at implementation phase.'
She said that the two countries 'are discussing' the issue of determining fees and the use of infrastructure.
'It's a long process. Nothing will happen overnight,' said Dipu Moni.
She said that the Bangladesh government would also examine deals signed by other countries on providing transit with same characteristics.
She said that the government was working on providing transit to India, Nepal and Bhutan under a broad framework.
India is about start the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam, United News of Bangladesh reported last week quoting a top official of Nipko, an
affiliated company of the Indian Power Ministry, which had been entrusted to implement the hydroelectric project on the common international river Barak.
The official said Nipko obtained environmental clearance and received the go-ahead from the Indian central government to build the dam at Tipaimukh in Churachandpur district in the northeastern Indian province of Monipur.
He also said that on receiving the go-head the company already took the necessary preparations to start the dam construction on the Barak at Tipaimukh.
Barak feeds two rivers in Bangladesh— the 350-kilometer long Surma and 110-km long Kushiara, the lifeline of the country's north-eastern region.
India would also build a barrage on the Barak at Fuletal in Lakhipur in Assam below the Tipaimukh Dam to divert its waters for an irrigation project, Nipko said.
The Nipko official said that the machinery and equipment for the construction were being transported to Tipaimukh
and the construction engineers, technicians and workers were gathering at the site.
The news that the government of India was preparing to start the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam defying protests by the people of Bangladesh and India's north-eastern region heightened worries in the region.
The Indian project to divert Barak waters at the upstream would, in the dry months, dry up Surma and Kushiara, which feeds the Megna, a major river system in Bangladesh, would adversely affect lower riparian Bangladesh in several ways, water experts said.
But in the rainy season the release of extra flows by India would aggravate flooding and erosion in Bangladesh, particularly in greater Sylhet.
The problems in lower riparian Bangladesh would increase manifold due to Tipaimukh Dam, water, environment and agriculture experts warned.
Water and agriculture experts said Tipaimukh would create severe water shortage in Bangladesh's north-eastern region and turn a vast arable area into arid land to threaten the country's food security and farmers' livelihood.
Farmers in Sylhet, Moulvibazaar, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria are worried that griculture and fishing, which provide them sustenance, would be destroyed by the Indian dam.
Source : New Age
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