On Thursday, India dismissed news reports that a recent flood in Bangladesh was due to the opening of the Dumbur dam on the Gumti River in Tripura. Regarding the fakes appearing on social media platforms in Bangladesh that claimed that the water released by the dam was the cause of the floods in adjacent areas, the Ministry of External Affairs of India said nothing of it. Other existing assertions were such mere assumptions that the shifting of the garment factories to Cambodia was politically motivated after the recent political change in Bangladesh.
The Indian statement debunks the reports that alleged the dam contributed to the flooding. It further pointed out that the flooding in Bangladesh was the result of the occurrence of out-flood flows, which are generated by heavy rainfalls in the large catchment areas located downstream of Dumbur Dam. The dam is located over 120 km from the border and is upstream from Bangladesh; it is a relatively small dam, about 30 meters high. It mainly supplies electricity to Tripura and neighbouring Bangladesh, which uses 40 MW of power from this grid.
This was followed by India saying that the catchment areas of the Gumti River, which would be in both countries, received quite a lot of rainfall in the last few days and, therefore, the water levels are high. The floods in Bangladesh thus were blamed on these torrential rains as well as the drain off from large basin areas and not the dam as was being perceived.
Additionally, the statement mentioned that India has installed three water level observing stations, namely Amarpur station, Sonamura station and Sonamura-2 station, to gauge the levels of the river water and feed these measurements to the Bangladeshi authorities as per a mutual agreement between the two countries. Though the operation was disrupted due to an electrical power cut on August 21 to restrict flood-related communication, the data was transmitted through other means as the country was keen on frequent updates.
Overall, the Indian government stated that the situation was not local but was being overseen closely at the micro level, and the real cause was the magnitude of rain and excess water from upper catchment areas.
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