DHAKA: Bangladesh and Indian relations have hit a snag as Dhaka lodged a strong protest with New Delhi against proposed Indian plans to inter-link shared rivers raising fears of an ecological disaster in Bangladesh, officials said Thursday.

According to officials in Bangladesh’s Water Development Board, Indian engineers have drawn up plans for a mega project involving more than 30 common rivers and a network of man-made canals and dams to transfer water from India’s flood-prone northeastern region to the relatively arid central provinces.

Reports in the Bangladeshi press say if India goes ahead with the construction of a dam on the Borak river for irrigation and hydro electricity, the natural flow into the rice terraces of Bangladesh’s fertile Sylhet province will be reduced drastically.

The Borak is said to be the first in a series of transboundary rivers to be dammed by India under the river-link project expected to also control monsoon floods and fight droughts.

But environment groups in Dhaka fear diverting the rivers upstream will bring about colossal economic damage to deltaic Bangladesh through depletion of fish stocks and loss of navigability — endangering the jobs of millions of people including fishermen and subsistence farmers.

“Human interference in the river flow can intensify desertification in northern Bangladesh and increase salinity at the river estuaries on the Bay of Bengal,” said river expert Ainun Nishat of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s Water Resources Minister Hafizuddin Ahmad said his country was vehemently protesting against the proposed Indian plan because such river tampering would permanently ruin the economy as well as destroying the natural habitat of fresh water fish.

“We hope India will not proceed with the river-link plan because of its potentially dangerous effect on the environment and livelihood of people,” Ahmad told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Ahmad also said his country was ready to go to any international forum to convince India to drop the plan.

All but one of Bangladesh’s 64 major rivers originate in Nepal and the Tibetan highlands of the snow capped Himalayas and flow through both northeastern India and Bangladesh before falling into the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh blames its next door neighbour for violating the 1996 water accord by diverting more water from the common river Ganges at the Farakka barrage in Indian West Bengal state than agreed upon, leaving fertile hinterlands in the poverty stricken lower riparian country parched in the dry winter.

Analysts say the disputed river-link project will worsen bilateral ties already embittered over the share of the Ganges.

Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said the government was collecting information from various sources on the controversial water project but it was certain that the river-link plan would displace millions of people, the majority of whom are living under the poverty line.

Diplomatic sources said the Indian government was yet to inform Bangladesh officially on whether the project had been taken up.

“There has been no Indian response to the concerns in Bangladesh,” said a Dhaka based South Asian diplomat who cannot be named. “While relations with India sour, Bangladesh’s fragile economy will be threatened,” he said.—dpa