Amid reports accusing the opening of a dam on Tripura's Gumti River leading to flooding in the eastern districts of Bangladesh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday quashed the allegation and termed it 'factually incorrect'.
What did MEA say?
According to MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, "The catchment areas of Gumti River that flows through India and Bangladesh witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days", but said the floods in Bangladesh were mainly due to waters from downstream catchments areas.
"The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120 km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura," the ministry further said in its official statement.
"Heavy rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. Data showing a rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh till 1500 on August 21. At 1800, due to flooding, there was a power outage leading to problems of communication... we tried to maintain communication through other means...", the MEA statement read.
Flood situation in Bangladesh and Tripura
Multiple deaths have been reported recently in Bangladesh in several rain-related incidents across the eight affected districts including Sunamganj, Maulvibazar, Habiganj, Feni, Chittagong, Noakhali, Comilla, and Khagrachari, as per local media reports.
Besides Bangladesh, incessant rainfall in the region has also caused deluge in Tripura. As per reports, over 34,000 people have been displaced so far due to the floods in the northeastern state.
The weather department on Tuesday said the heavy rains were the result of a low-pressure area persisting over central parts of Bangladesh and the adjacent region.
According to the officials privy to the development, at least nine people, including three members of a family, died while two others were injured in separate incidents of landslides and drowning in Tripura.
It has been said that most of the northeastern state's prominent rivers were flowing above critical levels while the main river - Gumti - had crossed the 'extreme danger level'.
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