Once the project is implemented, it is expected to contribute 0.45 percent to the country’s GDP and the direct annual estimated return will be Tk 80 billion. Additionally, essential irrigation water facilities will be ensured to about 2.88 million hectares of net agricultural land in Kushtia, Faridpur, Jashore, Khulna, Barishal, Pabna and Rajshahi areas along the barrage, which will help in retaining 2900 million cubic meters of water in the Padma river.
According to the project background paper, the south-western and north-western Padma-dependent areas of Bangladesh account for about 37 percent of the country’s area and are home to about one-third of the population.
The document said India built the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal in the 1970s to divert 35,000-40,000 cusecs of water from the Padma/Ganga into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system during the dry season to improve the navigability of Kolkata port.
As a result of upstream drainage at Farakka, dry season flows in the Padma River within Bangladesh have declined significantly, leading to drying up of major river systems in the southwest and northwest. As a result, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, navigation, domestic water availability and wider ecosystems in these areas have been severely affected.