Analysis conducted by Getirana, A. etal. (2022) found that the dry season flow of the river Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna has halved: “(O)ur analysis of river-gauge data also shows that the winter water flow of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers combined has halved between 1993 and 2021”[1].
We are seeking the answer to this question: What is the quantity of the annual waterflow of the rivers of Bangladesh, and what is its trend?
Please help.
Reference:
[1] Getirana, A. etal.(2022), Avert Bangladesh’s Looming Water Crisis Through Open Science and Better Data, Nature, Volume 610, pages 626-629, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03373-5, accessed last on 11.04.2023, in section ‘State of flow’.
As regards the trend, I am aware of reduced river flows in the dry season in both Ganga and Brahmaputra basins in India - mainly due to water abstractions and the loss of forests+wetlands. thereby leading to lower infiltration and as a consequence, reduced baseflows. I am not aware of the disharge numbers, you may need to search for Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) annual reports, or look at the literature on remotely sensed river discharge estimates, such as https://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/Publications/hirpaetalinreview.pdf
Brother Amartya K Saha, greetings from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
I thank you very much for your help. The paper you provided is quite useful for my research, thank you.
However, it is very difficult to find basic data such as the annual river flow of Bangladesh, or the annual rainfall of Bangladesh. It sounds impossible, but it is true.
It feels like living in a post-apocalyptic time when knowledge is lost.
I have seen one or two mention of annual river flow after several days of research, but they don't usually provide a reference for the information, so I cannot use it because its not verifiable.
You are right, I need to contact Bangladesh Water Ministry, but they do not provide any help online, one must travel to their offices, and travelling in traffic congested very large city Dhaka is not easy.
My best regards and greetings.
N.B.: Brother, you said "(A)s regards the trend, I am aware of reduced river flows in the dry season in both Ganga and Brahmaputra basins in India - mainly due to water abstractions and the loss of forests+wetlands. thereby leading to lower infiltration and as a consequence, reduced baseflows".
It would be very useful for me if you could give me a source of this information, the research that found it. With regards.
This is so far what we have learnt regarding the matter:
The rivers of Bangladesh, the Padma, the Jamuna, the Teesta, the Brahmaputra, the Surma, the Meghna and the Karnaphuli, being the prominent, have 230 tributaries with a total length of about 24,140 kilometers[1], the number of rivers is 405 in a different account[2]; or 700 by another account[3].
BWDB states “(I)t is assumed that an average flow of 1,009,000 Million cubic meters flowing through these river systems during the monsoon season”[4].
BWDB states “80 percent of the total river flow occurs during July to October. Consequentially, there is too much water in monsoon season. On contrary, the rest of the 20 percent flow occurs in dry season which is too petite. As a result, there is usually a scarcity of water during January to March”[5].
BWDB states “The total annual runoff of surface water flowing through the rivers of Bangladesh is about 12,000 billion cubic meters (BWDB FFWC flood report)”[6].
No information on the trend is available so far.
Sources:
[1]Statistical Yearbook Bangladesh 2021, 41st Edition, Date of Publication: June, 2022, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Statistics & Informatics Division (SID), Ministry Of Planning, Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh, www.bbs.gov.bd, available at http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/latesreport/SYB_2021.pdf, accessed last on 22.05.2023, Bangladesh: An Overview, At Page XXI.
[2] The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) states that “(T)here are more than 405 nos different types of river flow all over the country”, Chapter 2, River System of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Analysis of Water Level Along The Brahmaputra Jamuna, Ganga-Padma & Surma-Meghna River System, August 2020, Surface Water Processing Branch, BWDB, 72, Green Road, Dhaka, available online at: http://www.hydrology.bwdb.gov.bd/img_upload/ongoing_project/757.pdf, accessed on 28.05.2023.
[3] Hossain, M.S.; Harun-ur-Rashid, M., Surface Water, Banglapedia - the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, by Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, available online at: https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Surface_Water, accessed 28.05.2023.
[4]BWDB (2020), ibid, at Chapter 2, River System of Bangladesh, page 11.
[5]BWDB (2020), ibid, at Chapter 2, River System of Bangladesh, page 11. It is not clear where BWDB has found the information, no source is provided.
[6]BWDB (2020), ibid, at 2.3 River Water flow, page 14.
Here are some papers that have some dicharge and rainfall data presented in graphs, etc
https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2021-97/hess-2021-97.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19795-6
https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2010/2010_Papa_pa08300g.pdf
https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlet-innerpage/brahmaputra-river-system
Conference Paper Dispersion Pattern of the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Discharge...
https://www.grida.no/resources/6686
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/hydr/19/1/jhm-d-16-0202_1.xml
Thank you very much Brother Amartya K Saha.
I could not open one page https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlet-innerpage/brahmaputra-river-system
Collected the rest. They will be useful for my research.
We have made some progress and published some information. We shall inform you what becomes of our investigation.
Salam and best regards.
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