The West Bengal government of India is planning to draw more water from Teesta and the Jaldhaka through digging two canals, The Telegraph said on Saturday.
Around 100cumecs (cubic metres per second) of water are available in the Teesta in the summer months. Around 1,600cumecs are required to irrigate agricultural land both in India and Bangladesh, said sources.
"Twelve small rivers have already dried up and two major rivers -- Teesta and Dharla -- have been turned into canals in the Northern Part of Bangladesh due to lack of water flow from upstream India.
Mile of chars have developed on the rivers," according to the Water Development Board of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh wants to sign a deal on sharing the waters of the trans-border river. It claims that about 60 per cent of an estimated 90,000 hectares on the river's banks remain unused in the dry season because of the lack of water in the Teesta, a tributary of the Brahmaputra that originates in the Teesta Kangse glacier and flows through Sikkim and Bengal before entering Bangladesh.
However, the Telegraph reports that a 32km-long canal to draw water from the Teesta and the Jaldhaka will be dug till Changrabandha of Cooch Behar district. Another canal, which will have a length of 15km, will be built on the left bank of the Teesta.
"The Bengal irrigation department on Friday took possession of around 1,000 acres to dig two more canals under the Teesta Barrage Project to channelise water for agricultural purposes," it reads.
The move will help bring more farms under irrigation in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts but may upset Bangladesh where the Teesta flows into from north Bengal. Bangladesh has been waiting for the Teesta water-sharing deal with India for more than a decade to solve the water scarcity in the northern parts of the neighbouring country, it added.
The barrage is located at Gajoldoba in the Jalpaiguri district. "The irrigation department will assess in due course the total agriculture area that will benefit from the canals, which will help around one lakh farmers as irrigation is concerned. The project, however, suffered for decades and water reaches only around 1.04 lakh hectares now, however, the Jalpaiguri district administration handed over around 1,000 acres to the department in the presence of state irrigation minister Partha Bhowmik, it reports.
The Teesta Barrage project was launched in 1975 with a plan to irrigate 9.22 lakh hectares of agricultural land in north Bengal. The plan was to route water from the Teesta through canals on either bank of the river. On the way, the canals would be fed by other rivers which flow through the region.
"The Bengal government's decision to dig new canals under the Teesta Barrage project after a gap of over 20 years is set to raise Dhaka's hackles. New Delhi and Dhaka couldn't clinch a pact to share the Teesta waters because of objections raised by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in 2011.
A political observer pointed out that by extending the reach of the Teesta project, Mamata is trying to prove that north Bengal needs water from the river," the report said.
The Teesta and the Dharla used to flow all-year-round earlier just 10 years back, Teesta, which can be up to 5km wide, is currently reduced to a width of about 30 metres, with only knee-deep water in summer.
Bangladesh repeatedly said that the unilateral construction of a barrage across the Teesta at India's Gazaldoba, which is around 100km upstream of the Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project at Dalia in Hatibandha upazila, is the reason for the poor condition of the river.
Farmers in the country's northern districts depend on Teesta water to irrigate their crop fields during the dry season, but unusually low flow of the river in Bangladesh due to India's unilateral water withdrawal from upstream badly affects farming and biodiversity in the region.
"If these project would be implemented that Bengal will not be able to divert water to Bangladesh during the lean season, as it has diverted almost all water through Mahananda link channel at Gajoldoba to support agriculture and cater for drinking water needs," official said.
