The Ganges Water Diversion: Environmental Effects and Implications

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. The Ganges Water Diversion: Environmental Effects and Implications — An Introduction

   • M. Monirul Qader Mirza

   Pages 1-12

3. Hydrological Changes in Bangladesh

   • M. Monirul Qader Mirza

   Pages 13-37

4. Role of Farakka Barrage on the Disastrous 1998 Flood in Malda (West Bengal)

   • S. K. Mazumder

   Pages 39-48

5. Impact of Upstream Human Interventions on the Morphology of the Ganges-Gorai System

   • Maminul Hague Sarker

   Pages 49-80

6. Effects on Water Salinity in Bangladesh

   • M. Monirul Qader Mirza, Maminul Haque Sarker

   Pages 81-102

7. Farakka Barrage and its Impact on the Hydrology and Fishery of Hooghly Estuary

   • M. Sinha

   Pages 103-124

8. Implications on Ecosystems in Bangladesh

   • Ansarul Karim

   Pages 125-161

9. Watering the Bangladeshi Sundarbans

   • Alan Potkin

   Pages 163-176

10. Adverse Effects on Agriculture in the Ganges Basin in Bangladesh

    • M. Monirul Qader Mirza, Md. Altaf Hossain

    Pages 177-196

11. Environmental Impacts of the Ganges Water Diversion and its International Legal Aspects

    • Md. Nazrul Islam

    Pages 197-221

12. Watching the Farakka Barrage: Role of Media

    • Moinuddin Naser, Harun-Ur-Rashid, Farzana Abdulhusein

    Pages 223-246

13. Vulnerability to the Ganges Water Diversion: Adaptation and Coping Mechanisms

    • M. Monirul Qader Mirza

    Pages 247-285

14. The Ganges Water-Sharing Treaty: Risk Analysis of the Negotiated Discharge

    • M. Monirul Qader Mirza

    Pages 287-303

15. Regional Cooperation on Water and Environment in the Ganges Basin: Bangladesh Perspectives

    • Q. K. Ahmad, Ahsan Uddin Ahmed

    Pages 305-325

16. Back Matter

    Pages 327-367

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This book deals with environmental effects on both sides of the border between Bangladesh and India caused by the Ganges water diversion. This issue came to my attention in early 1976 when news media in Bangladesh and overseas, began publications of articles on the unilateral withdrawal of a huge quantity of water from the Ganges River through the commissioning of the Farakka Barrage in India. I first pursued the subject professionally in 1984 while working as a contributor for Bangladesh Today, Holiday and New Nation. During the next two decades, I followed the protracted hydro-political negotiations between the riparian countries in the Ganges basin, and I traveled extensively to observe the environmental and ecological changes in Bangladesh as well as India that occurred due to the water diversion. The Ganges, one of the longest rivers of the world originates at the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas and flows across the plains of North India. Eventually the river splits into two main branches and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The conflict of diversion and sharing of the Ganges water arose in the middle of the last century when the government of India decided to implement a barrage at Farakka to resolve a navigation problem at the Kolkata Port.

• Erosion
• Fauna
• development
• ecosystem
• ecosystems
• environment
• hydrology
• hydrogeology
• ecotoxicology

• Adaptation and Impacts Research Group (AIRG), Environment Canada, c/o Institute for Environmental Studies (IES), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  M. Monirul Qader Mirza

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