The chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, called for the decommissioning of the Farakka barrage recently. This demand, unlike what may be expected, was not motivated by a love for free-flowing rivers. On the contrary, Kumar believes that with its upstream neighbour Uttar Pradesh usurping all the water from the Ganga, Bihar alone is left with the burden of fulfilling the downstream requirements of the Farakka treaty. If there is no Farakka, there will be no necessity of allowing water downstream; na rahegi baaz, na bajegi bansuri (If the bamboo is destroyed, the flute will not play).
This reasoning is flawed, of course. Whether Farakka stands or not, Bangladesh will continue to be our downstream neighbour, and it is important to ensure that adequate water flows into the Ganga for the sake of the country and the ecosystem of the Bay of Bengal.
But what purpose does the Farakka barrage serve? Would we be better off without it?
This idea took concrete form in 1957, when the government of India appointed a consultant to look into the problem of siltation of the Kolkata port. Construction on the barrage began in 1962 and was commissioned in 1975.
Despite the barrage, the siltation is an ongoing problem. The Kolkata port continues to dredge an ever-increasing amount of silt to maintain its usefulness; from 6.4 million cum (cubic metre) before the barrage was constructed, they need to annually dredge out 21.18 million cum today. This increase in siltation is due to the deforestation in the catchment area and vastly reduced flows.
Besides not preventing siltation, the Farakka barrage has led to a great deal of what might be termed 'collateral damage'.
Dhuliyan is a good place to visit. But Kalyan Rudra, a geographer who has been studying Farakka and its implications, points out in his report The Encroaching Ganga and Social Conflicts: The Case of West Bengal, India that this centuries-old town is likely to disappear into the Ganga in the next few decades.
Upstream of the barrage, the river is flanked on its right by the Raj Mahal hills. This causes the river to tend towards its left, away from the obstruction, eroding its left bank in the process. The district of Malda, on the left bank of the river, has been flooding regularly for decades. This flooding has been further increased by the impoundment at Farakka which has greatly increased the sedimentation at the barrage, thus causing a rise in the bed level and changes in the gradient of the riverbed. The government of West Bengal acknowledges the role of the barrage in the inundation of Malda. The 13th legislative assembly stated, “It is accepted at all levels that the construction of Farakka barrage is solely responsible behind the erosion of River Ganges in Malda district.”
Downstream, the residents of Murshidabad are not well off either. The Ganga river has been steadily eroding its banks downstream of the barrage--206sq km of land was eroded from Murshidabad district between the years of 1988 and 1994.
As it turns out, the decision may not be up to us after all.
The leftward tendency of the river as well as the changes in cross-section has a serious consequence. If the Ganga continues on its present course, it may soon outflank the barrage altogether. There are signs at Panchananda, a few kilometres upstream of the barrage, that the river is inclined towards one of its older channels.
In this case, we might not have a choice about whether to accede to Kumar's request or not. The choice may well be made for us as the river leaves its present channel for one of the older ones.
What will be the impact of this?
The harvesting of Hilsa constitutes 1 percent of Bangladesh's GDP. Parineeta Dandekar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has written that this economically and socially important fish has drastically declined due to the Farakka barrage. Restoring longitudinal connectivity in the Ganga will drastically increase the reach of Hilsa. This will not only restore the livelihoods of the fisherfolk up to Allahabad, which was once the upstream limit of the Hilsa's territory, but also increase the population of gharial, birds and other predators.
Another major impact is that of salinity of the Bay of Bengal. Reduced discharge in the Ganga due to the barrage has increased both salinity and sedimentation in Bangladesh. Monirul Mirza, a physical scientist working on environmental security and adaptation, states that this salinity has had negative effects on agriculture, forestry, industry and drinking water in the southwest region of Bangladesh. These effects will be negated with the removal of the barrage.
The short-term effects are likely to be devastating.
Near the Farakka barrage, the river passes through some of the most densely populated regions in the world. The population densities of the Malda district, Murshidabad district and Bangladesh are all over 1,000 people per square kilometre (compared with India's population density of 382 people per sq.km). Removal of a long-established dam such as the Farakka barrage needs to be looked at as a disturbance to the system and comes with some negative effects. Increased sediment load will lead to a greater disturbance downstream than is presently observed. These changes have been proved to be temporary, but in a densely populated area, it will cause damage to land and property until the system regains equilibrium.
The largest dam removal so far has been on Elwha, a 73km-long river with a discharge of 42.6 cum/sec, when the Glines Canyon dam was removed. This dam was 64m high and around 137m long. The Farakka barrage is 2,240 metres long and located on a 2,000km-long monsoonal river with an average discharge of 12,037 cum/sec.
The removal of Farakka will be treading new ground, in more ways than one.