River Surma needs Dredging.

Bangladesh will talk with India on dredging of the Surma River at the Joint Rivers Commission meeting starting Thursday in New Delhi. A 16-strong Bangladesh delegation, headed by water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, reached New Delhi on Wednesday to attend the 37th ministerial-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission.Peace Like a River

Water Development Board officials say water flows in the Surma river comes down to almost nothing in the dry season after 1990s as a big shoal has emerged in the no-man's land in Amalshid where Indian Barak Iiver enters Bangladesh into two rivers—Surma and Kushiara.Surma Bengali News Weekly

They say removal of the shoal by dredging has not got the importance it deserved. "We will discuss the Teesta's water sharing. Also, we will raise this issue of Surma's dredging at the JRC meeting," water resources secretary Shaikh Wahid-uz-Zaaman, one of the delegation members.Where the River Ends

Water Development Board's superintendent engineer (in Sylhet) Syed Afsan Ali told on Monday that if the shoal was removed, more water in the Surma will be available.The RiverRiver Songs of Bangladesh

"It should be dredged," he said. The board officials said they could not go for the dredging as the shoal is in the no-man's land. "It is up to the JRC to settle this," a top official of the board told preferring anonymity. "Without the JRC's approval, we cannot go for dredging in the border," he said.RiverRiver Songs of Bangladesh

The Water Development Board records say water availability in the Surma river comes down drastically in the dry season: from November to March. Officials say the river's highest flow in July-August reaches about 1,500 cumec per second, but it falls to about five to six cumec per second in March or April every year.Tales From The River Brahmaputra [Tibet * India * Bangladesh]

In 2008, the Surma's highest and lowest flow figures for the dry season were recorded in March. The lowest flow was 6.05 cumec per second while the highest was just 15 cumec per second. The highest flow in the rainy season the same year was 1456 cumec per second on July 21.Politics of Himalayan River Waters: An Analysis of the River Water Issues of Nepal, India and Bangladesh (Nirala Series 32)