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Environmental and Socio-economic Disaster Due to Farakka Barrage in Bangladesh- a Remote Sensing and GIS Evaluation

M. A. Salam
Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Bangladesh is the deltaic country lies on the largest delta of Ganga-Brahmaputra basin in the South Asian region. The country has 54 transboundary rivers and 80 percent of the country’s surface water comes through the basin that originated from the Himalayas. India installed Farakka barrage over the Ganges river 14 km from Bangladesh near Chapainababgonj boarder in 1974 to divert water from it. Since the commission of the barrage, the rivers in the western part of Bangladesh are silting up and few of them have already dried up resulting shrinkage or waterways to 7,000 kilometers from about 24,000 kilometers. Landsat TM/ETM images of 1990 and 2000, were utilized to develop false colour composite (FCC) images with the bands 347 (RGB) for visual analysis of the effect of Farakka barrage. The normalized vegetation index (NDVI) and unsupervised classification were also done to discriminate the vegetation level, extent of water and bare land, and to see the land use pattern in the region. The image analysis reveals that the land use pattern has changed significantly in the region over the time. The water flow in the rivers in 2000 image has reduced comparing to 1990 image, drastic change in the quality and availability of water, invasion of salt water into upstream rivers and underground aquifers, as well as the related changes in the soil. It is also revealed that with the recession of freshwater flow from upstream, saline water intrudes into the south-western rivers, increasing significant number of shrimp ponds without proper planning which posing threats to the overall ecology, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, coastal erosion and infrastructure. The world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sunderban is under threat, has already shown dying out effect due to increase in salinity level in the estuarine rivers flowing through it. On the other hand, the barrage has been causing desertification in northern part of the Ganges river catchments.

Keywords: Farakka barrage, Mangrove forest, Water diversion, Landsat image, NDVI, Unsupervised image classification, False colour composite

Location: The study area is located between 24 degree 00´ north latitude and 90 degree 00´ east longitude. The area covers the Ganges River catchments which have been mostly affected by the Ganges barrage installation

Start Date: 00-11-1990

End Date: 00-11-2000

Program Area: Conservation and Biodiversity

Non-commodity: Impact

Objectives:

1. To apply remote sensing technology to detect and evaluate the state of vegetation, land use and land cover changes, estimation of rice cultivation area and the state of water in the region after commissioning of Farraka barrage using multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM images data

Methodology:

The methodology of this study is based on Remote Sensing image interpretation which is supported by the secondary data collected from a range of sources like field visit, literature review, internet search and consultation with the relevant reports. The overall methodology for this study are as follows: Multi-temporal Thematic Mapper image data obtained from Landsat-5 and Landsat-7 launched by NASA, USA was used. Landsat TM/ETM image has 7 bands with 3 visible and 4 infrared channels including one thermal band. The spatial resolution of one pixel of TM image is 30m by 30m except thermal band with 120m by 120m.

Source of Information: J. Agrofor. Environ. 1(2): 117-123, 2007; ISSN 1995-6983

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The water flow in the rivers in 2000 image has reduced comparing to 1990 image, drastic change in the quality and availability of water, invasion of salt water into upstream rivers and underground aquifers, as well as the related changes in the soil. It is also revealed that with the recession of freshwater flow from upstream, saline water intrudes into the south-western rivers, increasing significant number of shrimp ponds without proper planning which posing threats to the overall ecology, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, coastal erosion and infrastructure. The world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sunderban is under threat, has already shown dying out effect due to increase in salinity level in the estuarine rivers flowing through it. On the other hand, the barrage has been causing desertification in northern part of the Ganges river catchments.

Knowledge Management: Journal