Farakka Barrage
Farakka Barrage
Farakka Barrage
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Farakka Barrage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Farakka Barrage
Location
Coordinates
244816N 875559E
[4]
1972
Construction cost
Impact
Impounds
Ganges River
Length
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season of 1975 under an accord announced as a joint press release on 18 April 1975. But after the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975, relations between the two countries
became greatly strained and India continued to withdraw water even after the agreed period. The
diversions led to a crisis situation in Bangladesh in the dry season of 1976. In 1977, Bangladesh went to
the United Nations and lodged a formal protest against India with the General Assembly of The United
Nations, which adopted a consensus statement on November 26, 1976. Talks between the two countries
were resumed in December 1976. No consensus was reached.[5]
Twenty years later, in 1996, a 30-year agreement was signed. It did not contain any guarantee clause for
minimum amounts of water to be supplied to Bangladesh, nor were future hydrological parameters taken
into account. As a result, the agreement failed to provide the expected result.[6] Negotiations continue to
the present today. In Bangladesh, the diversion has raised salinity levels, contaminated fisheries,
hindered navigation, and posed a threat to water quality and public health.[7] Lower levels of soil
moisture along with increased salinity have also led to desertification.[8]
The barrage was constructed by Hindustan Construction Company. It has 109 gates and the two which
collapsed were erected in 1975. Out of 109 gates, 108 are over the river and the 109th one over the low
lying land in Malda, as a precaution. The Barrage serves water to the Farakka Super Thermal Power
Station. There are also sixty canals which can divert the water to other destinations.
West Bengal has water supplied via its vast rivers. Food crops, fish stocks, trade, transportation, nature,
environment, flora, and fauna are part of people's life lines that are the inhabitants in this area and by
extension inhabitants, elsewhere. These groups are both directly dependent on the river system of the
West Bengal region.
See also
Sharing the water of the Ganges
Indian Rivers Inter-link
Kalpasar Project See Talk page also
List of longest bridges in the world
List of longest bridges above water in India
References
1. ^ "Farakka Barrage Project Farakka" (http://mowr.gov.in/index3.asp?
sslid=296&subsublinkid=714&langid=1).
2. ^ Salman, Salman M. A.; Uprety, Kishor (2002). Conflict and cooperation on South Asia's international
rivers: a legal perspective (http://books.google.com/books?id=8GEr4fyDbqgC&pg=PA135). World Bank
Publications. pp. 135136. ISBN 978-0-8213-5352-3. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
3. ^ "The Encroaching Ganga and Social Conflicts: The Case of West Bengal,
India." (http://gangapedia.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Rudra.pdf). Retrieved 23 May 2014.
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