Environment and Ecology Research Vol. 1(4), pp. 161 - 195
DOI: 10.13189/eer.2013.010401
Reprint (PDF) (8323Kb)

Upstream Water Piracy Impact on the Aquatic World and Human Dimension -Some Water Piracy Curses

Miah Muhammad Adel ^*
Professor of Physics, Astronomy, and Environmental Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Interdisciplinary Sciences Research Center, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, 1200 North University Drive, Pine Bluff, AR 71601

ABSTRACT

Out of the myriads of downstream ecocide effects in the Bangladesh Ganges basin from India’s upstream water piracy, attention has been given on the extinction of the aquatic species that supplied people’s cheap nutritional intakes and seasonal to permanent livelihood. In the Ganges basin, surface water bodies consisted of the Ganges, its distributaries and their canals linking to floodplains, and privately owned ponds and ditches. Most of the ponds and all the ditches would flood in the rainy season, and along with the floodplains, would turn into a vast sheet of water body allowing mingling of fishes from different sources. People used to have calcium and the indispensable animal protein nutrient as well as income supplement from the cheap fish resources. Some people would make fishing gears out of threads and bamboo strips, a generations-old home-grown technology. India’s indiscriminate actions of violations of water rights for the downstream ecosystem challenge the UNDP’s cottage industries-based rehabilitation programs in the third world countries. Attempts to restore the lost wetland ecosystems require dredging of the Bangladeshi silted riverbeds and canals followed by the destruction of river barrages to return the pirated water. India’s irresponsible actions make her bear the dredging costs and pay monetary compensation to Bangladesh in retrospective effects. Deprivation of water has a slower but much wider ecocide problem than the weapon of mass destruction. International sanctions should be in placed upon India and all other disregarders of downstream ecosystem’s water rights.

KEYWORDS
Farakka Barrage, Ganges River, Hooghly River, Water Piracy, Ecosystem, Surface Water Resources, Nutrition for Fishes, Fishing Gears

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Miah Muhammad Adel , "Upstream Water Piracy Impact on the Aquatic World and Human Dimension -Some Water Piracy Curses," Environment and Ecology Research, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 161 - 195, 2013. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2013.010401.

(b). APA Format:
Miah Muhammad Adel (2013). Upstream Water Piracy Impact on the Aquatic World and Human Dimension -Some Water Piracy Curses. Environment and Ecology Research, 1(4), 161 - 195. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2013.010401.