India has released 11,000 cumecs of water through the Ghazaldoba dam
September 28, 20245 Mins Read
Mariam Sultana, BBC News Bangla: Due to heavy rains in Bangladesh for the past few days, the water level of the Teesta river is already rising. Meanwhile, India has released about 11 thousand cumec of water through Ghazaldoba dam in two phases yesterday.

However, the Bangladesh Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said that they had no prior knowledge about the release of this huge amount of water.

Cumec means the unit of calculation of how many cubic meters of water per second are discharged from a river or stream.

One cubic foot of water or about 28.31 liters of water released per second is called one cusec. And 35.31 cusecs equals one cumec.

Sardar Uday Raihan, executive engineer of the center said, "Bangladesh has no official information about the excess water that India has released."

According to their information, Domhani in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal received a flow of 2,267 cumecs on Teesta on Saturday, which is 'normal' for this time of the year.

The reason for opening Ghazaldoba dam?

Teesta is an international river. This river originates in the Himalayas and flows through Sikkim, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in India and enters Bangladesh.

Both the Bangladesh and India sections of this river have barrages. The dam of Teesta river in Bangladesh part is located at Doani in Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat district of Rangpur division, named Teesta barrage.

There are several dams on Teesta River in India. One of them is Ghazaldoba Dam in Jalpaiguri.

According to the control room of Teesta Dam in Ghazaldoba, about 6,000 and then more than 4,700 cumecs of water were released at 12:30 pm on Friday. After that, there was no news of new water release.

One thing to note here is that some of the gates or gates of the Teesta River dam remain open for a large part of the year. But when due to any reason the amount of water exceeds the capacity of the dam, more gates of the dam are simultaneously opened to release the excess water.

It happened in this case too. India's West Bengal State Irrigation Department has informed about the sudden release of such a large amount of water through the Ghazaldoba dam, India's Sikkim and West Bengal's Kalimpong districts have been receiving continuous rain for the past three days, like Bangladesh.

As a result, the water in several places on the Indian side of the Teesta river has crossed the danger level and beyond the water capacity of the dams. At one point, more gates had to be opened to get the water out.

BBC correspondent Amitabh Bhattashali said from Kolkata that red alert was issued on both banks of the river from Mekhligonj in Cooch Behar district to Bangladesh border yesterday.

A red alert has also been issued in the upstream region of Mekhligonj on Saturday midnight.

Also, the district administrations of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar have started evacuating residents from riverside areas since last night as the water level in the Teesta basin is rising.

The Indian Meteorological Department said on Saturday morning that in the last 24 hours, 130 mm of rain fell in Kalimpong district and 163 mm in Jalpaiguri district.

They said that there is a possibility of heavy rainfall in those two districts today.

How Bangladesh sees it

At the very beginning of the report, it is said that Bangladesh was not aware of releasing excess water. However, when Sardar Uday Raihan was spoken to, he said that from May to January, the dam is usually open during this time. Basically, the dam is not kept closed during monsoon.

The dam of Bangladesh also remains open at this time. Now that it is rainy season, there is no need for irrigation. The main reason for damming is irrigation. Moreover, there is full flow of water during this time. So the barrage is always kept open as there is a danger of exceeding its capacity,' he said.

Since the gates of the dam remain open during monsoon, no separate warning is issued in this regard.

Before releasing water from dams or dams for hydropower generation, it is necessary to inform.

“Because dams are different, dams have more water capacity. It stores water here, then releases it. The capacity of barrages is much less than that of dams,” he added.

According to him, Bangladesh knows about 2 thousand 267 cumec water flow, which is the normal flow of this season. But if "really about 11 thousand cumec" of water left India yesterday, then "there should be a big flood by now" in Bangladesh.

What will really flood?

Sardar Uday Raihan of the Bangladesh Flood Forecasting and Warning Center told BBC Bangla that the Teesta water will continue to rise in the next 24 hours. Hence 'general flooding' may occur in the Teesta basin.

'But nothing too terrible will happen. However, lowlands and grasslands may be affected. But it's nothing serious. Teesta River Basin, Nilphamari, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat; There is a risk of inundation in the low-lying areas and grasslands of these five districts,' said Raihan.

The Meteorological Departments of Bangladesh and India are predicting heavy rains 'for three days already'. Based on that, this warning was given in Teesta river four days earlier.

When will this water decrease? When asked, he said that next 24 hours, meaning morning or after noon. However, the Teesta river has not yet 'crossed the danger level' even though it is gradually rising.

The Flood Forecasting Center says that the Teesta River has seen an average rise of one meter in the last three days. Water is flowing below the danger line by 15 cm at Dalia Point and 25 cm at Kaunia Point. In the next 24 hours it may increase by another 30 cm.

However, water at Dalia Point may start receding after 9pm tonight.

Meanwhile, this morning Google Maps also showed that the Teesta river water is touching the danger level. However, not only the Teesta river in Rangpur division, but due to heavy rains, the water level of almost all the rivers has increased in the forecast of the flood forecasting center today.

It is said that other major rivers of Rangpur, such as Kartoa, Atrai, Tangon, Punarbhaba, Ichamati, Yamuna, Ghaghat and Yamuneshwari rivers have increased in water level. But they are also below danger level.

The administration has banned tourists from traveling to Sajek