Bangladesh was called land of rivers. Bangladesh and India shares fifty four rivers. Since the independence in 1971 India has built many dams on the upstream ignoring international laws. Farakka is one of them. It is situated about ten kilometers away from Bangladesh border.
This barrage was built to withdraw water from Padma and to deprive Bangladesh. This barrage changes the natural flow of water, desertification of northern Bangladesh started, increased arsenic problem, increased cost of irrigation, increased salinity in the southern region, destroyed ecosystem and created scarcity of drinking water.
A thirty year duration treaty was signed between Bangladesh and India to share Ganges water in 1996. According to that treaty Bangladesh and India are supposed to get equal share of water during dry season. But that has never followed. In the dry season Padma looks like a canal.
Situation was little better in last year because a sluice gate on Farakka was damaged, but that is repaired and water flow is less than the previous year. A team from India is due to visit Hardinge Bridge point.
