Twist in Teesta Tale: Mamata links Bangladesh polluting Mathabanga, Churni rivers with water sharing issue

The 'tampering' of the river courses of the Ganga-Padma system by Bangladesh is becoming a big stumbling block to the long-pending resolution of the sharing of Teesta river waters with India. Although Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in May 2017, it's taken centre stage now with the chief minister insisting a clean-up (by Bangladesh) of the Mathabanga river be made mandatory for resumption of Teesta talks. A distributary of the Padma, the Mathabanga enters India (Bengal) at Gede in Nadia district and after flowing for 19 km splits into the Churni and Ichhamati. The Churni flows for another 53 km before draining into the Bhagirathi Hooghly.

The latest provocation comes from a privately run sugar mill-cum-distillery on the banks of the Mathabanga at Darshana (Bangladesh) that is dumping untreated chemical effluents into the river. Consequently, a 72 km downstream stretch of the river that flows along some 120 fishing villages in Bengal has become unusable.

Fishermen like Basudeb Haldar say the pollution is killing the fish in the river. Haldar says earnings from the prawns and shrimp he nets from the Mathabanga have fallen from Rs 20,000 to a mere Rs 4,000 per month. Like him, scores of fishing families are struggling to survive. Men like Bibhas Haldar have quit fishing and become daily wagers on farms. The filth from across the border is also beginning to contaminate the groundwater here.

Although Mamata took up the problem only now (many believe as a means to delaying a settlement on sharing the Teesta waters), the Mathabanga & Churni River Rescue Committee (MCRRC) has been raising the issue since 2007. In May 2017, the committee petitioned the prime minister's office seeking a resolution through diplomatic channels. Earlier, it had gone to the National Green Tribunal, which directed the Centre to take up the matter with Bangladesh. While New Delhi sat on things, in October, the MCRRC wrote directly to Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina apprising her of the NGT's order. Despite the late response, river experts are now confident that Mamata will also take up the problem of the severely curtailed flows in the Churni, Mathabanga, Atreyee, Punarbhaba and Tangon rivers, owing to a new dam on the Bangladesh side.

Notably, PM Hasina is very keen on an early resolution of the Teesta issue, ahead of the general elections in Bangladesh in 2018. But people close to her say Mamata isn't having any of it. Besides the rivers, there are a host of issues that have cropped up as irritants between Bangladesh and West Bengal. These include the stopping of exports (from Bangladesh) of the highly sought after Padma Hilsa fish since 2012 and doubling of import duty on Bengal's mangoes. The CM has also voiced concern over reduced flows at the Farakka barrage resulting in frequent shutdowns at the power station, a consequence of the sharing of Ganga waters with Bangladesh.

MCRRC secretary Swapan Bhowmik says Mamata's decision to link the Teesta issue with problems in Mathabanga and Churni is a clever move. "If Bangladesh is keen on the Teesta water, it will have to take care of the other trans-border rivers it shares with Bengal," he says. Analysts believe it will also politically benefit Mamata in Nadia and north Bengal.