Ganga Barrage may figure in Hasina-Modi talks in Delhi

Bangladesh hopes to push ahead with Ganga Barrage Project alongside Teesta water sharing issue in the upcoming bi-lateral meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Norendra Modi scheduled to be held on October 15 and 16 at New Delhi.
Bangladesh's plan to build a dam on the Ganges (Ganga) River to ease water shortages in its southwest coastal region hangs in the balance as neighbouring India has yet to accept the plan.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed developing Ganges Barrage on the Padma River in Bangladesh under a joint venture project between Bangladesh and India.
To keep the project operational, Bangladesh wants a participatory engagement of India in the Ganga Barrage project for ensuring adequate water flow along the trans-boundary Ganga. If India does not release adequate water of the river upstream, the project will fall flat like the Teesta Barrage- which did not benefit Bangladesh because India unilaterally withdraws water from the river.
The Foreign Ministry's officials sat with the officials of the Water Resources Ministry on Monday to make a final check list, however, an official said that it was also on the list during Norendra Modi's Dhaka visit but it was not on the agenda.
"Yes, we put it on the discussion agenda when we finalised the talking points of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the crucial bi-lateral meeting, however, it should be endorsed by the Indian side," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer on Monday.
About $4 billion is needed to implement the Ganges Barrage Project. Two Chinese companies - HydroChina and Sinohydro - have also shown interest in financing the project and submitted proposals to the Finance Ministry.
The Ganges flows out of India on flat terrain from West Bengal. Bangladesh's south-western region, home to one-third of the country's 158 million population, is dependent on the Ganga.
"The government has given top priority to implementing the proposed Ganges Barrage Project to solve salinity and arsenic problems and address water scarcity in the south-western region of Bangladesh," said Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud.
During a visit to India in November last, Mahmud met his Indian counterpart, Uma Bharati, who assured him of a response soon.
Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that all the documents requested by India were sent last April, but New Delhi is yet to respond.
It will be a hard task for Bangladesh to implement the large dam alone, which is why it has sought cooperation from India, experts observed.
Water Resources Ministry and Foreign Ministry has exchanged all related information with India since the inception of this project.
New Delhi sent a letter to the Bangladesh government in early 2015 saying Indian technical experts had evaluated project documents sent by Dhaka and were concerned the dam could cause flooding in India.
In 1975, India constructed the Farakka barrage across the river that flows through both countries to divert 40,000 cusecs of water into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River in West Bengal to flush out sediment deposits from Kolkata harbour.
This has dramatically reduced the flow of the Ganga, affecting agriculture, fishery, forestry, navigation, domestic water supply and industrial development in Bangladesh. The world's largest mangrove forest Sundarban is now under threat from rising salinity caused by lack of water flow during the dry season.
Meanwhile, India in the letter to Bangladesh predicted that even a slight increase in the river's water level would cause huge submergence in areas of India bordering Bangladesh.
Bangladesh started work on the proposed Ganges Barrage Project during the tenure of the previous ruling Awami League government in the late 1990s and gives top priority to the US$4 billion Ganga Barrage Project.
The project, welcomed by experts as an initiative that will transform the region but crippled by lack of funds, will come up at Pangsha in Rajbari district, 98 kilometres downstream from the Farrakka barrage built on the Ganga in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The country has already completed a feasibility study and the design for the proposed 2.1 kilometre-long dam, due to be constructed at Pangsha in Rajbari district.
Experts say salinity is on the rise in the southwest due to sea-level rise from global warning. The proposed dam would release water through river channels to help dilute the salt levels.
According to official sources, the proposed barrage will create a reservoir, covering 62,500 acres, with a capacity of about 2,900 million cubic litres of water. The reserved water will be diverted to 26 districts through regional rivers in the south-west area. In addition, a 100 MW hydropower plant will also be built on the barrage.
Once the barrage is built, the Ganga reservoir water will be distributed through a network of channels in the dry season to meet the water demands for irrigation, fisheries, navigation and salinity control.
The release of water from the reservoir through the river system of the Ganga dependent area will help manage siltation problems in river channels and preserve biodiversity and forest resources in the Sundarban, he added.
"India may halt the (Ganges) project, showing technical issues that it (says) will pose adverse impacts on Indian territory - which is why Bangladesh has sought cooperation from India" in the project, said Delwar Hossain, an International Relations Professor at Dhaka University.
However, any project in a downstream country such as Bangladesh has little possibility to cause harm to upstream countries, Hossain said. He said Bangladesh should push ahead to quickly answer any technical questions India raises.