Amidst concern over an onrush of floodwaters from upstream, India on Thursday said there was a problem in the communication of flood data with Bangladesh on August 21 due to a flood-induced power outage in Tripura.
An Indian external affairs ministry release said it was not correct that the flood in Bangladesh was caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura.
It says: "Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh upto 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data."
It further explains that along the about 120km river course of the Gumti, India has three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2, and among these sites, Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which India transmitted real-time flood data to Bangladesh.
But because of the power outage, India faced problems in communicating with Bangladesh the update on August 21 evening.
That was a crucial time when the authorities in Tripura had to release water by opening a sluice gate of Dumbur dam and flood forecasters in Bangladesh said they did not get any advance information about that dam opening.
The Indian ministry said: "Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed,"
It pointed out that the catchment areas of the Gumti River that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed the 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."
It further states that the Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low-height dam that generates power that feeds into a grid, from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW of power from Tripura.
It said floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting suffering on people on both sides and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them.
"As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions."