China Aggressive on Rivers

China aggressive on Tibetan rivers

CHINA has recently announced that a 141 km highway linking Bome to Medok City in Nyingtri Prefecture will be constructed next year. An airport has also been opened in this Prefecture at an altitude of 2949 metres. Medok is located near the Great Bend of Yarlung Tsangppo (India’s Brahmaputra) where the river takes a sharp U-turn to enter into India. India is interested in these developments since the road and the airstrip at Nyingtri would facilitate construction of the project planned by China at the Great Bend to divert the Brahmaputra waters to its north.
One of the major problems facing China presently is water scarcity, as the mighty Yellow River has become a seasonal stream and the Yangtze river is in a critical condition. China does not want its aspirations to superpower status thwarted by a water crisis and hence its plans to divert the abundant water resources of the Tibetan Region to the arid north through 3 links – the eastern, central and western. The southern part of the western link envisages the Brahmaputra diversion.
The Chinese plans for using the Brahmaputra waters have been in the news since last few decades, as brought out in the Executive Intelligence Review Special Report (1982), and the Scientific American (June, 1996). For many years China had been vehemently denying any such move. However, in 2003, China’s official news agency, Xinhua, confirmed the plans for the Tsangpo
Diversion Project.
The project, scheduled to start in 2009, would be sited at Permakoe near the Great Bend and would have two components (i) a power plant with an installed capacity of more than 40000 MW utilizing the fall of 3000mts. in the river and (ii) arrangements for diverting Tsangpo waters.
The Chinese interventions in the Sutlej, Brahmaputra, etc. could affect river flows into India.Our irrigation and hydroprojects would suffer if the Chinese divert the waters during glacier melting period and release large flows during the monsoon.
In this connection, the experience of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, the co-basin states of the Mekong basin due to China constructing 2 hydro-dams in its territory, should be an eye opener for India.
These states alleged that the indiscriminate Chinese operations affected their agriculture, fisheries and tourism activities; also, the devastating floods of 2002 in their areas occurred due to China releasing more waters than normal from its upstream reservoirs into the river below. However, China did not bother about the objections raised by these states and even of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) stating that it is not a member of MRC.
India too had experienced heavy losses due to unprecedented floods from Tibetan rivers in the recent past. The large floods in the Sutlej in 2000, 2004 and 2005 necessitated closure of the Nathpa Jhakri Project and evacuation of people from the affected areas. Arunachal Pradesh also suffered due to a flooded Brahmaputra reportedly caused by dam failures in Tibet.
China is not answerable to India on the use of the Tibetan rivers since there are no agreements between India and China on transboundary rivers, a situation similar to the Mekong basin. Hence it would be in the interest of India to enter into an agreement with China for the optimum utilization of the Tibetan rivers as a follow up of the joint declaration made by the two countries in 2006 for exchanging hydrologic data.
Sharing information on flow data alone is not adequate to address our concerns. The impacts on the rivers due to upstream Chinese operations such as (i) reduction of flows by diversion and (ii) floods resulting from breaches or sudden gate openings, have to be addressed by India. Construction of cascade projects across the concerned rivers is therefore a necessity to ensure water conservation and flood absorption. Unfortunately proposed projects like Khab project(s) in Himachal Pradesh and Siang project(s) in Arunachal Pradesh investigated earlier appears to have been dropped on benefit -cost considerations.
The strategic importance including disaster mitigation offered by these projects should have been given due weightage while evaluating them instead of applying the routine norms . It is time Government of India takes special interest to implement these projects to address India’s concerns instead of labouring under an ideology induced myopia.

(The Tribune, dated 26th December, 2007)