Ganges Barrage scheme put on ice for decades

Although the foundation stone of the Ganges Barrage Project was laid nearly three decades ago, successive governments could not even finalise a site for the barrage yet, leading to continuing deterioration of the ecology and agriculture of southern Bangladesh.
With no tangible action towards realising the project yet in sight, the people of the region and environmentalists are saying the entire region will continue to pay a heavy price as more rivers will dry up hampering navigability, irrigation, and fishing.
They say the deteriorating situation of the rivers will also increase salinity and siltation, affecting the livelihoods in the people in the entire region, while threatening the existence of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.
The new Awami League (AL) government, however, selected the project as one of its priorities. Water Resources Minister Romesh Chandra Sen already talked to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about the project, said ministry officials.
"We are seriously thinking of constructing the barrage as it is becoming increasingly vital for the region's irrigation, fisheries and the environment," Romesh Chandra Sen told The Daily Star last week.
He said an expert body will visit the region to finalise a site for the proposed barrage. "We are considering the Pangsha-Sujanagar point of Rajbari and Pabna districts for the barrage, instead of the previous one near the Hardinge Bridge," he said.
Former electricity, water resources, and flood control minister Kazi Anwarul Haq laid a foundation stone for the proposed barrage at Moslempur point in Bheramara upazila of Kushtia on December 27, 1980.
An observer's bungalow was also built there to initiate construction of the barrage. The government then spent about Tk 15 crore to carry out a model study for the barrage. But since then the project hardly had any headway till date.
The history of the Ganges Barrage Project dates back to 1957, when the erstwhile Pakistani regime took an initiative to build a barrage on the Padma, three kilometres downstream from the Hardinge Bridge, after India had started constructing the Farakka Barrage across the Ganges River, about 11 miles up stream from the common border, according to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) in Kushtia.
"Had the barrage been constructed, the problems would not have deepened to the present extent," said Mir Sazzad Hossain, a member of Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission (JRC). "We would be able to resolve the crises by effectively using harnessed water if the barrage had been built," he added.
Sazzad said a site for the project will be finalised after carrying out yet another model study.
The people of the southern region have been demanding the barrage for a long time, especially farmers and fishermen who are directly affected by less water in the rivers in dry seasons.
Manjer Ali, a farmer of Charkol village in Mirpur upazila of Kushtia, who cultivated rice on four bighas of land, said they are frightened in dry seasons thinking of where they would get water.
Another farmer, Ansar Talukdar said they are forced to spend additional money for irrigation increasing the production cost. "It also hampers production," he added.
They demanded that the government takes an effective measure for immediately building their long desired barrage to save the region, covering the country's 37 percent area.
They also said the region has been facing manifold crises due to India's unilateral holding of water with the Farakka Barrage, which has been posing a great environmental threat to the coastal area around the Sundarbans, a world heritage site for conservation.
The flow of once mighty Padma River has also ebbed alarmingly, leading to drying up of at least 15 other big and small rivers in the region.
The Ganges Barrage Project was designed to harness water of the River Padma and to divert it to those 15 rivers during dry seasons.
A 1991 government data show, since Farrakka Barrage became operational in 1975, the region has been incurring a loss of more than Tk 300 crore each year through additional spending for dredging and irrigation.
"The River Gorai used to channel water to other rivers of the region. But that hasn't been possible for years due to scarcity of water in the Gorai," said Sazzad Hossain, terming the proposed barrage as the ultimate solution for all the problems.
As about 15 rivers in the region are facing severe ebb, saline water is also entering into the rivers easily, increasing salinity in the upper streams too, posing threat to the ecology of the Sundarbans, said environmentalists.
Due to a lack of water in the Padma, the Ganges-Kabadak Irrigation Project, which was initiated in 1959 bringing 1.16 lakh hectares of land under irrigation, is also not running well.
If the Ganges Barrage was built, the experts said, it would increase navigability of the rivers in the region decreasing salinity in the rivers, ultimately saving the Sundarbans, and the population of the region.