India Refutes Claims That Waters From Indian Dam Are Causing Bangladesh Floods

India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday (August 22) refuted claims that release of water from a dam inside Indian border is causing floods in Bangladesh. It has termed such reports 'factually not correct'. The ministry released a statement on its official website.

Posts on social media have been claiming that release of water from Dumbur Dam in Gumti River is the reason regions in eastern parts of Bangladesh.

"We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct...," said MEA.

Gumti river flows through India and then enters Bangladesh.

The ministry has noted in its release that catchment areas of the river have seen heaviest rains of this year. But it has clarified that floods in Bangladesh are mainly because water in catchments downstream of the dam.

The floods have affected people on both sides of Indo-Bangladesh border. In Tripura, more than 34000 people have been affected due to floods.

There are 54 cross border rivers between India and Bangladesh and flooding it common in many of them. Both countries have set-up co-ordination mechanism for sharing of information so that disasters can be averted on both sides.

MEA underlined that information about rising waters was shared with Bangladesh authorities even when flooding hit the electricity supply.

"Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh upto 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data," said the ministry.