Cunning Strategy for Upstream Water Piracy and Remedial Measures

Abstract

Abstract

India has been pirating 60% of the Bangladesh Gangetic ecosystem's water since 1975 after construction of a feeder canal by the Farakka Barrage in the name of maintaining the navigability of the Calcutta Port located at the mouth of the Hooghly River. As a consequence, massive ecocide has unfolded in Bangladesh. India's forced piracy and Bangladesh's compelled consent to piracy, for a meager discharge, have continued for the past forty years. This study focuses on Calcutta Port's navigability source, navigability loss and past maintenance, India's water crisis, and India's use of the looted water resources. Sources of information included electronic and print media, site visitations, expert interviews, fieldwork, travel accounts, research institutions, and government offices. The study finds Calcutta Port's brisk use during the British period, Calcutta Port's Ganges discharge-independent establishment, India's development of other ports in post-independent India, the storage of the Hooghly's water in reservoirs, Calcutta Port's navigability loss unworthy of causing ecocide in Bangladesh, India's inland cruise line setup with the pirated water, and the stealing of water from border rivers. As a member of the Ramsar Convention inter-governmental panel since 1971, India's actions violate the Convention's doctrines of saving a permanent or temporary water body without regard to its location, kind, size, and depth through international convention. For environmental justice, India should pay Bangladesh earnings from the looted water's commercial use, cover dredging costs of Bangladesh's clogged rivers and canals, close the feeder canal, demolish the Farakka Barrage, and return the water to Bangladesh. Furthermore, India should be financially responsible for the full recharge of the groundwater, purification of arsenic, treatment for millions of potential and current arsenic patients and 20% arsenic fatalities, lost livelihoods, salinity removal, rebuilding of the eroded coast, revitalization of extinct flora and fauna, and establishment of normal climate.