OK India is enacting dams to control/reroute water. What BD is doing about it, and not just talk about it.
Now we have adequate/surplus water in the rainy season, and not enough in the dry season. Even with the Indian dams, we still have to deal with the flood water in the monsoon, where India just opens the gates ( kinda a like not having a dam).
By working out the water sharing agreements , river/flood management issues BD can effectively neutralize the threat that exists. There are plenty of studies done about water management in BD. Almost none were implemented.
These issues have been going on for at least more than 35 yrs. We can go on complain about it for another 35 yrs or so, but will that solve the problem ? Whining about it is just political and won't get anything done.
We have certain national traits. One of them is to blame others for our own difficulties, but we also do not do our home works adequately. After saying that, we must also understand that international river flows cannot be diverted or its water withhold unilaterally by the upper riverine country.
India has always been doing this. It would build dams a few km above the border without consulting BD. Farakka and Teesta are only two such examples. India does things that harm BD ecologically, financially, economically and psychologically. India seems to connive our sentiments, but then try to ease out things by making strong relationship with the Awami League leaders.
To solve its own water problem, India can perhaps build vast reservoirs at the upper end of rivers like Ganges/Padma and Teesta, get supply from them during winter, and free most of the water for use by BD.
In case of BD, it can build a number of barrages. One such barrage can be located across the Padma near Bhola. Sluice gates can be built across the entry and exit points of all the distributories from the Padma, and 5m (?) high earthen levies can be built along both the banks of this river.
This is how the entire Padma and almost all its distributories will become a vast water reservoir. Winter farming can be supplied with water from this system. It is sure that not all the farms can be connected directly to this network, but when water is available in the river system, the ground water table will rise. This will cause to pump up underground water for irrigation at low cost.
Water is very precious now a days, because countries have to produce more and more foods to feed the ever expanding population. Nature alone is not able to feed this huge population any more. So, not a single drop of water should be allowed to flow freely to the sea. About 3 acre-foot (it means an acre of paddy land will require 3 feet high water) of water is needed in average for each acre of winter paddy crop.
A person can calculate the total requirements of irrigation water in the country and then again calculate the volume of water that can be retained in all the rivers and haors. He will find that BD has enough water resources available to support quite a marvellous GREEN REVOLUTION that can feed 400 million mouths.
Therefore, a comprehensive water management programme must be evolved by our engineers and scientists.
