The Ganges Water Diversion: Environmental Effects and Implications

This book deals with environmental effects on both sides of the border between Bangladesh and India caused by the Ganges water diversion. This issue came to my attention in early 1976 when news media in Bangladesh and overseas, began publications of articles on the unilateral withdrawal of a huge quantity of water from the Ganges River through the commissioning of the Farakka Barrage in India. I first pursued the subject professionally in 1984 while working as a contributor for Bangladesh Today, Holiday and New Nation. During the next two decades, I followed the protracted hydro-political negotiations between the riparian countries in the Ganges basin, and I traveled extensively to observe the environmental and ecological changes in Bangladesh as well as India that occurred due to the water diversion. The Ganges, one of the longest rivers of the world originates at the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas and flows across the plains of North India. Eventually the river splits into two main branches and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The conflict of diversion and sharing of the Ganges water arose in the middle of the last century when the government of India decided to implement a barrage at Farakka to resolve a navigation problem at the Kolkata Port.

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Preface. Acknowledgements. Glossary. 1. The Ganges water diversion: environmental effects and implications - an introduction; M.M.Q. Mirza. 2. Hydrological changes in Bangladesh; M.M.Q. Mirza. 3. Role of Farakka Barrage on the disasterous 1998 flood in Malda (West Bengal); S.K. Mazumder. 4. Impact of upstream human interventions on the morphology of the Ganges-Gorai system; M.H. Sarker. 5. Effects on water salinity in Bangladesh; M.M.Q. Mirza, M.H. Sarker. 6. Farrakka Barrage and its impact on the hydrology and fishery of Hooghly Estuary; M. Sinha. 7. Implications on ecosystems in Bangladesh; A. Karim. 8. Watering the Bangladeshi Sundharbans; A. Potkin. 9. Adverse effects on agriculture in the Ganges Basin in Bangladesh; M.M.Q. Mirza, M.A. Hossain. 10. Environmental impacts of the Ganges water diversion and its international legal aspects; M.N. Islam. 11. Watching the Farakka Barrage: role of media; M. Naser, et al. 12. Vulnerability to the Ganges water diversion: adaptation and coping mechanisms; M.M.Q. Mirza. 13. The Ganges water sharing treaty: risk analysis of the negotiated discharge; M.M.Q. Mirza. 14. Regional cooperation on water and environment in the Ganges Basin: Bangladesh perspectives; Q.K. Ahmad, A.U. Ahmed. Annex I. Index.