The Tipaimukh issue

INDIA is constructing the Tipaimukh barrage barely one kilometer away from Bangladesh's northeast border, threatening to dry up the flow of the Surma and Kushiara rivers during the lean period. The Daily Star carried this report on February 15 showing the barrage on the Barak River at Churachandpur in Assam will render barren vast arable lands in northeast Bangladesh, and change the ecology and climate in the region.
Before I discuss the technicalities and the rights issues relating to the co-riparian countries, just consider the potential risks that such a barrage can pose to the flows of Surma and Kushiara, the feeders for one of Bangladesh's biggest river system -- Meghna. Shrinkage of water flow in the Meghna will pose a threat to the ecosystem in its basin and allow intrusion of seawater. It will have serious ramifications on river-based human habitation, land cultivation and fish population.
The recent work on the barrage is part of a plan to build the Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydro-Electric Power Project in Manipur and Mizoram states. The first such initiative in March 2007 was thwarted through protests in and outside India. Participants in a long march from Sylhet to Jakiganj border and environmentalists in India had strongly protested the construction of the barrage.
The Tipaimukh Project envisages construction of a 162 metre high rockfill dam about 500 metres downstream of the confluence of the rivers Barak and Tuivai. The main objective of the project is to generate 1500 MW hydropower and flood control on 2,039 square kilometers. Amidst huge uproar at home and abroad, and its probable adverse affects on both sides of the border, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests issued environmental clearance to the state-owned North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd. (NEEPCO) on October 24 last year.
In its clearance letter to the Rs. 6,979 crore project, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests stated: "557 households consisting of 2,027 persons are likely to be affected due to this project in Manipur. In addition to that, 77 villages will be affected due to land acquisition; no villages will be submerged in Mizoram. Only land of 13 villages will be affected in Mizoram."
While India has done its environment impact assessment, it's officially not yet clear whether Bangladesh has or not. Since India envisages implementing the project, it is obvious it would do so. How accurate that assessment is and whether it is acceptable to the people in Manipur, Mizoram and Assam are altogether different questions. But, Bangladesh, which is at the receiving end, can't afford to sit idle as a silent spectator.
What can be a better forum than the Indo-Bangla Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) for Bangladesh to raise this issue? Being a co-riparian for many common rivers with India, it has every right to do so. In fact, it was in this very forum -- when the JRC met in Dhaka in 2005 -- that the then Indian water resources minister and JRC co-chairperson Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi had reassured Bangladesh that India would not implement the controversial river-link project (RLP) in Himalayan range rivers, that include Ganges and Brahmaputra, having direct bearings on Bangladesh, and also dispelled Bangladesh's concern about Tipaimukh Project.
Dasmunshi was quoted by the press as saying: "We'll present Tipaimukh's planned design to Bangladesh when it is prepared." The then Bangladesh water resources minister Hafiz Uddin Ahmed told journalists that Bangladesh had fears regarding the Tipaimukh project, but India gave assurance of not building any barrage and not diverting Barak water adversely.
But the ground reality is in sharp contrast to what the leaders had committed then. Though a huge quantum of water and silt has flowed through the Barak, Surma and Kushiara rivers over the last three years, no JRC meeting took place. The JRC, in operation since 1972, which was mandated to have meetings at least twice a year, failed to hold a single meeting since September 2005.
Though a few water meetings took place at secretary and technocrat-levels, nothing significant came up -- not to speak of solutions to Teesta water sharing, Tipaimukh concerns, Ichhamoti dredging and other unresolved common river issues.
After a lapse of almost two years, when Bangladesh is well poised for any water negotiations with a democratically elected government in place, the Indian election is in the horizon. So, good intentions from both sides are crucial now for setting up an emergency JRC meet to iron out all differences, confusions and concerns. Bangladesh has to cry loud before another Farakka hounds us!

Reaz Ahmad writes on water and agricultural issues. E-mail: [email protected]