Saibal Dasgupta
The Times of India
February 5, 2013,
China has assured India that the new hydropower dams it is planning to build on the Brahmaputra will not come in the way of flood control and environmental efforts for protecting the people and land across the border in the Indian northeast.
Beijing said on Monday it was maintaining “close communication and cooperation” with India on the issue, adding that it would ensure there would be “no negative impact”.
China has kept New Delhi guessing about its plans for the Brahmaputra without giving a clear reply to Indian queries for over three years, and kept it engaged in joint hydrological studies. It now turns out that the country was quietly making preparations for the dam construction, and Indian officials knew little about it.
The Chinese State Council, or cabinet, has approved plans for the construction of three new hydropower projects in the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra, or Yarlung Zangbo as it is known in China. The projects were listed in an energy development plan for 2011-15 announced on January 23. Work has already begun on a 510 MW dam in Zangmu in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
“China has always taken a responsible attitude towards cross-border river development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. “The construction of the stations will not impact flood control or disaster reduction efforts, as well as the ecological environment on the lower reaches.”
This follows last week’s Chinese statement that “any new projects have to go through scientific planning and study, with the consideration of the interests of both lower and upper stream [riparian] countries.”
In the past, many of China’s neighbours have voiced concern over the lack of information on new projects. China’s dams in far-western Xinjiang, for instance, have evoked concerns in neighbouring Kazakhstan, where officials say the water levels in the Irtysh and Ili rivers, crucial to the country’s water security, have fallen in recent years. China’s dams on the Mekong have stoked fears in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Beijing has only recently begun to share more information with these countries on water flows.
India and China have instituted a working group mechanism to exchange data, including measurement of flows, although neither has taken any concrete step towards a formal water-sharing agreement.
Last December, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon briefed the media about his meeting with Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo. The Chinese “are what they were” in terms of water flows from China to India in the Brahmaputra, he said. “We mentioned the fact that we have a forum, we are exchanging data on trans-border rivers, and that we would like to expand what we are doing,” Menon said. “They are sharing data with us, and we will keep working with them at it, because it is a sensitive issue.”
