The country’s largest irrigation scheme, the Teesta Irrigation Project, is facing an existential crisis as acute water shortages have rendered much of its infrastructure ineffective, leaving farmers across northern districts struggling with soaring production costs.
With upstream water flow dwindling, the Teesta River has turned into a near-dry channel during the lean season. As a result, the Bangladesh Water Development Board is unable to irrigate even half of the targeted farmland, forcing farmers in Nilphamari, Rangpur and Dinajpur to rely on costly alternative methods.
Once a roaring river, the Teesta is now largely a stretch of sandbanks. While monsoon flow often exceeds 2,00,000 cusecs, it drops to around 2,000 cusecs in the dry season. At times, flow at the Dalia point falls below 500 cusecs.
Officials at the Teesta Barrage in Dalia said diversion of water upstream at India’s Gajoldoba Barrage has significantly reduced downstream flow into Bangladesh, directly affecting the irrigation project.
Although hundreds of crores of taka have been spent over three decades on canal construction and expansion around the Teesta Barrage, the absence of water has left the system largely ineffective. The irrigation network comprises 766 kilometres of main and branch canals across 12 upazilas in Nilphamari, Rangpur and Dinajpur.
At present, expansion works worth nearly Tk1,500 crore are under way, with the Water Development Board claiming 95 per cent completion. However, on-the-ground observations suggest that many newly built sluice gates and concrete canals have yet to receive a single drop of Teesta water.
Despite the river running dry, canal rehabilitation works continue. Farmers allege that some irrigation channels have never carried water, even after completion.
Confusion over official data has further deepened concerns. While riverbeds lie exposed, government records reportedly show adequate water levels.
Nilphamari Water Development Board Executive Engineer Atikur Rahman said 10,000 cusecs are required to meet irrigation targets and claimed that sufficient water is currently available. In contrast, Dalia Executive Engineer Amitabh Chowdhury said the barrage is receiving a maximum of 2,500 cusecs upstream, and even 200 cusecs cannot be supplied across the 110-kilometre downstream stretch.
The contradictory statements have raised questions about transparency and the actual state of water availability.
When the project was launched in 1990, it aimed to irrigate 84,378 hectares of land. More than three decades later, that target remains unmet. This season, the irrigation goal for the district has been set at 57,000 hectares, but field reports indicate that severe water shortages may prevent even 50 per cent of the target from being achieved.
Jagadish Chandra, a farmer from Itakhola in Nilphamari, said river water would have cost between Tk200 and Tk300 per bigha. “Now we are spending Tk2,000 to Tk2,500 per bigha using shallow machines and diesel. Fertiliser and fuel prices are high, and we are paying extra for water. How will we survive?” he said.
Sohel Hasan, a central member of the Teesta Bachao Nodi Bachao movement, said canal excavation and infrastructure alone cannot make the project viable. He stressed the need for diplomatic efforts to secure Bangladesh’s fair share of upstream water and proposed constructing reservoirs to retain monsoon flow.
“Without ensuring water security, this thousand-crore investment will remain buried under sand,” he said.
