| Teesta river drying up :Indian authority at Gajaldoba closed the gate of the Teesta river Shoals have emerged in 152 kilometre from Dalia in Nilphamari district to Bahadurabod ghat. The entire riverbed is now sandy instead of vast expanse of water. A drought-like condition is prevailing in the northern districts due to want of rain. On the other hand, for want of water and alarming fall in groundwater level 50,000 acres of Boro lands have dried up and cracks have developed on the Boro paddy lands. According to a source in the Water Development Board (WDB) the river Teesta has dried up early this season. It is to be mentioned here the Teesta barrage had been constructed at a cost of Taka one thousand five hundred crore to provide irrigation facilities in the nine districts during the lean period. It is learnt that to provide irrigation facilities to 44,750 hectares of land 12 upazilas of Nilphamari, Rangpur and Dinajpur districts had been brought under first phase scheme. After getting assurance from the WDB authorities the farmers of the region paid attention to the Boro cultivation. But due to scarcity of water in the river Teesta, the WDB authorities failed to give irrigation facilities. The farmers of the irrigation areas of the WDB are rushing towards the project offices everyday for water. But the project officials are unable to give water. Because the irrigation canal has also dried up. to an information, the Indian authority at Gajaldoba closed the gate of the Teesta river. As a result, water source in river Teesta totally exhausted. It is gathered that a Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting was held in the recent past for legal share of water of the river Teesta. But the Indian authority is yet to give any positive signal in this regard. In a meeting held in the year 1966 it was decided that in the lean period India will use 40 per cent water and Bangladesh will use 35 per cent water of the total flow of the Teesta river. But since then till now Bangladesh never got 10 per cent water. Due to drying up of the river Teesta at least 40,000 fishermen are jobless in the river areas of this region. The fishermen of the region were fishing in the 50 branch rivers and tributaries. But due to drying up of the main flow of the water from the river Teesta all the branch rivers have also dried up. The jobless fishermen are passing hard days with their family members. In the mean time, some of the fishermen deserted their profession and engaged in other jobs. It is observed that if the flow of water in the river Teesta is not brought back the country will face serious climatic problem. |
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