Our dying Padma

The mighty Padma now lies as a pale imitation of its former self. Depletion in the flow of water from upstream, along with deposition of silt, has choked the riverbed, rendering it nearly unrecognisable.

"Due to poor discharge of water at Farakka Point, water flow reduced by 10-20 thousand cusecs at Hardinge Bridge point in last couple of months. The poor upstream flow, alongside poor rainfall, is drying up the river alarmingly."

— Md Rezaul Karim Executive engineer, Department of Hydrology

The depletion of its flow along with the lack of rainfall has exposed vast stretches of the riverbed, where millions of tonnes of silt accumulate every year. The water in the river is now visible for only three to four months. The remaining eight to nine months see the water level plummet to its lowest point, revealing miles of sandy char lands across the river's expanse.

The mighty Padma, is now dying.  Where boats and even big ships used to cruise once has now become crop fields at some places, while being turned into narrow ponds scattered across riverbeds in other places.

"I have never seen Padma dried up so much before," said Md Chand Ali, 50, a fisherman of Pakshey village under Pabna's Ishwardi upazila.

"Earlier, even during dry season, I could catch at least 3-4 kilogrammes of fish daily. Now, catching barely 1kg of fish is difficult due to poor water flow in the river," he said.

The river is completely dry across the area under the Hardinge Bridge, while huge number of shoals have emerged everywhere, Chand Ali added. Other fishermen from the area echoed him.

According to hydrology experts, the mighty Padma dried up significantly this year due to poor water flow from upstream, adversely affecting the livelihoods of hundreds of fishermen from the areas adjoining the river.

Irrigation has been badly affected as the operation of pumps of the Ganges-Kobadak project has remained suspended due to poor flow.

"We need a minimum water level of 4.5-metre for pump operation in the G-K project. The water level was more than 5-metre around this time last year. At present, the water level is at 4.07-metre which is inadequate, disrupting the country's biggest irrigation project," said Md Abdul Hamid, director of G-K project.

The three main pumps, which have been providing irrigation water for 96,000 hectares of agricultural land in the southern districts, are yet to resume operation this year, while subsidiary pumps have been out of services since 2002 for technical faults, he added.

Bangladesh reportedly got a poor supply of water in the first couple of months this year as per the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty due to poor flow of water at Farakka Point, said Md Rezaul Karim, executive engineer of Department of Hydrology, Pabna division.

According to the Joint Rivers Commission report, the flow of water at Hardinge Bridge point recorded at each 10-day cycle between January 1 and March 10 this year were 63,113 cusecs, 48,518 cusecs, 48,359 cusecs, 43,926 cusecs, 34,697 cusecs, 35,751 cusecs and 36,818 cusecs.

Around the same time in 2023, the figures recorded in the JRC report were 85,316 cusecs, 70,827 cusecs, 69,990 cusecs, 67,364 cusecs, 59,376 cusecs, 47,891 cusecs and 42, 372 cusecs.

"Due to poor discharge of water at Farakka Point, water flow reduced by 10-20 thousand cusecs at Hardinge Bridge point in the last couple of months. The poor upstream flow, alongside poor rainfall, is drying up the river alarmingly," Rezaul Karim also said.

According to the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, both Bangladesh and India will get 50 percent share of water if the available water level at Farakka Point is 70,000 cusecs or less. If the level is 70-75 thousand cusecs, Bangladesh will get minimum 35,000 cusecs and India will get the rest. If the level is 75,000 cusecs or more, then India will get a minimum of 40,000 cusecs and Bangladesh will get the rest.

Both Bangladesh and India will surely get a minimum 35,000 cusecs water from March 11 till May 10, according to the treaty.

Experts, however, opined that the treaty should be reshuffled considering the present perspective of the river's water flow.