Agreements & MOUs - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 169

Impact on Forestry

Mrs. K. Begum said, Bangladesh claimed that the forests of Sundarbans, much of
which is in Bangladesh, provides raw materials to newsprint and paper mills, match
and furniture factories etc. Varieties of constructive activities have been affected
by increased salinity after the diversion of the Ganga water and inflicted heavy
and irreparable loss, which would ultimately affect 45,000 people, living on forest
products.

Impact on Industry

The salinity level in the southwest region was so high after the diversion that the
Goalpara Thermal Power station had to be closed for some time and thereafter oper-
ated intermittently by bringing fresh water in barges at increased cost from long
distances. The Bheramara power station could not operate, as the water level of the
intake channel went below R. L. 17 feet. Khulna newsprint mill was operated at half
its capacity, as the chloride content of the water, used in the mill, increased by more
than 20 times. The paper mills at Paksey also suffered miserably.

Effects on Health and Ecology

Bangladesh also alleged adverse effects on health, mainly because of increased
salinity in the drinking water.
Roughly 5% of the drinking water tube-wells were rendered inoperative. Substantial parts
registered high salinity. The effect of salinity on health occurs when the body is incapable
of absorbing any more sodium. The manifestations is hypertension. The short-term system
of disease is dysentery; in addition the propensity to fall prey to cardio logical illness is
increased.

About ecology, Bangladesh said:
... It is necessary to consider total eco-cycle and ecology of the region. The wild lives of the

Sundarbans are already endangered species. It is hard to reconcile to this abrupt change in
the balance of Nature when the awareness of the necessity for taking full account of its own
eco-system, that of its neighbour, that of its region and that of the world, is ever growing in
countries, all over the world.
India refuted this, saying that the region being close to the sea, the problems of
salinity and its adverse effects on environment have always been there.

Ecological and environmental problems are complex and call for a comprehensive, inte-
grated and multi-disciplinary approach. Such problems cannot be solved on the basis of
an exaggerated emphasis on only [one] factor, such as, withdrawal at Farakka, or on the
problems of only one area to the exclusion of others.

Mrs. Begum ended her litany of charges, adding that Nature's equilibrium was
bound to be disturbed, following the diversion at Farakka. She proposed a joint study
and co-ordinated efforts to find a solution and added that unilateral withdrawal and
speculation of consequences by India have brought some kind of tension and uneasy