The Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project in Dalia, Nilphamari, built to boost northern Bangladesh’s agricultural economy, has become nearly waterless. Despite extensive canals, sluice gates, and control structures built at a cost of thousands of crores of taka, the project is now ineffective due to insufficient water flow in the Teesta River. Field visits revealed that the riverbed has turned into sandbanks, with dry season flows dropping to as low as 500 cusecs at Dalia, compared to over 200,000 cusecs during monsoon. Officials attribute the crisis to heavy upstream water withdrawal through India’s Gajoldoba Barrage.
The project covers 766 kilometers of canals across 12 upazilas in Nilphamari, Rangpur, and Dinajpur, with 95 percent of expansion work reportedly completed. However, water has yet to reach most canals, leaving them dry. Farmers say they now rely on shallow machines and diesel pumps, doubling irrigation costs to 2,000–2,500 taka per bigha, compared to 200–300 taka if river water were available.
Experts and river activists stress that infrastructure alone cannot revive the project without fair transboundary water sharing and long-term reservoir planning to store monsoon water.
আব্দুর রাজ্জাক, নীলফামারী প্রকাশ : ২৮ ফেব্রুয়ারি ২০২৬, ০৯: ২৪ দেশের উত্তরাঞ্চলের কৃষি অর্থনীতি উন্নয়নে গড়ে ওঠা নীলফামারীর ডালিয়ায় তিস্তা ব্যারাজ সেচ প্রকল্প এখন পানিশূন্য হয়ে পড়েছে । হাজার কোটি টাকা ব্যয়ে নির্মিত এ প্রকল্পটিতে সম্প্রসারিত ক্যানেল, স
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