Since commissioning of the Farakka Barrage by India in 1975 to divert 40,000 cusec of water into the Bhagirathi and Hoogly rivers, the flows in the Ganges reduced considerably and this has adversely affected agriculture, fishery, forestry, navigation, domestic water supply, industrial development, etc. in the Ganges dependent area (4.6 M ha) within, Bangladesh. In 1996 a treaty was signed with India on sharing the water of the Ganges. Several studies have been undertaken, before and after 1996, and all have advocated for the construction of a barrage across the Ganges at a suitable location to make optimum use of the water that would be available under the treaty. The objective of this project is to assess the feasibility and returns on investments on a number of proposed interventions to achieve, first, optimum the use of water, and (2) mitigate the adverse effects of the Farakka Barrage.
Client: Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), 2013