Flooding in Bangladesh not due to release of waters from Tripura dam: MEA

MEA denies Dumbur dam caused Bangladesh floods, emphasizing heavy rainfall as the primary cause of flooding in both countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (August 22, 2024) denied reports of floods in the eastern districts of Bangladesh were caused due to the opening of the Dumbur dam in Tripura.

“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,” the agency said in a statement.

Western Tripura and parts of Bangladesh have been inundated with rain in the last few days and this was largely responsible for the flooding in downstream Bangladesh. The Dumbur dam, a hydropower project, had been “auto releasing” water as a consequence of the rainfall, their statement noted.

The Dumbnur dam is a hydroelectric project and is built upon the Gumti river which flows through India and Bangladesh.

Tripura has witnessed heavy rainfall, with ‘extremely heavy’ rainfall being reported over southern and western Tripura from 19th-22nd this month, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.

“We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days. The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam,” the MEA statement emphasised, “The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border — over 120 Km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low-height dam (about 30m) that generates power, which feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh draws 40MW power from Tripura.”

Through the 120 Km course of the river there were three water-level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2 in Tripura.