Hindustan Times
April 17, 2013
China has rejected India’s proposal for a new mechanism to deal with issues of water made in the wake of construction of three more dams on the Brahamputra by the Chinese.
But, India will press ahead with its demand, which Bejing had told they would look into.
India is pressing China to have either a water commission or an inter-governmental dialogue or a treaty to deal with water issues between the two countries and to look into Indian concerns about the dams on the Brahmaputra in Tibet.
The Chinese however, are of the view that the existing mechanism on sharing hydrological data—for Brahmaputra and Sutlej–is adequate. The two countries have agreed to share hydrological data on Brahmaputra in 2008, but the pact gained momentum only in 2010. Such data is critical for India’s flood management efforts, especially for states like Assam.
As per the agreement, the Chinese side is expected to provide hydrological data from three stations to India as part the flood management effort.
Till then, India and China were sharing flood data only for the river Sutlej.
The issue of a mechanism was also raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his first bilateral meeting with newly-elected Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in Durban last month.
Singh was understood to have conveyed to Xi concerns in India over the Chinese proposal to construct three more dams across the Brahmaputra.
India has said the proposal would affect water flow to India while China says it was just run-of-the-river project that would not hold divert water.
A high-level inter-ministerial committee, comprising officials from external affairs ministry, defence ministry, department of space among others regularly take stock of the situation and after their meeting in February had recommended that the matter be taken up with China again.
India has an Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan under which the two countries share information and cooperate on the matter.
