Explained: Why Bangladesh social media is blaming India for causing floods

Earlier today, social media users in Bangladesh blamed India for the floods affecting at least eight districts in the neighbouring country

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The Centre on Thursday rejected viral claims linking the flood situation in east Bangladesh to the release of waters from a dam on Gumti River in Tripura.

“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura…” Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement.

Jaiswal’s statement came after several social media users of Bangladesh blamed India for the flood situation in at eight districts of the country.

Gumti River between India-Bangladesh

Jaiswal labelled the social media chatter as factually incorrect and pointed out that the flood in Bangladesh is due to large catchments downstream of the dam. The catchment areas of the Gumti River, which flows through both India and Bangladesh, experienced the heaviest rainfall of the year in recent days.

Jaiswal said that Dumbur dam is located more than 120 kilometres upstream of Bangladesh and is a low height dam. Bangladesh also draws 40 MW power generated from this dam in Tripura, he mentioned. He explained that in this 120 km river course, three water level observation sites: Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2 are located.

(Note: Business Standard could not independently verify the authenticity of these tweets)

Jaiswal also noted that because of the heavy rainfall in Tripura and the adjoining districts of Bangladesh since Wednesday, “automatic releases have been observed”.

Amarpur station is involved in a bilateral protocol to transmit real-time flood data to Bangladesh, he said, adding that the data shows a rising trend up to 3 pm on August 21, 2024. However, at 6 pm, flooding caused a power outage, resulting in communication issues. “Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.”

Viral claims on Bangladesh social media sites

India-Bangladesh share 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement, Jaiswal noted., adding that India is committed to mutually resolving such concerns through bilateral consultations and technical discussions.

Some social media claims on Bangladesh suggested that India deliberately let water into Bangladesh after the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government in the aftermath of the July-August violence. Hasina, currently seeking refuge in Delhi, was ousted on August 5 and had to flee the nation over security fears after a major student uprising.

On social media platform X, some tweets alleged that India let the release of water into Bangladesh to "please" Hasina.