New Delhi, July 3 (PTI): India carefully monitors all developments on the Brahmaputra River and has consistently conveyed its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities, urging them to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas, the government said on Wednesday.
In written response to a question in Lok Sabha, V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, said the Chinese side has conveyed to India on several occasions that they are only undertaking run-of-the-river hydropower projects which do not involve diversion of the waters of the Brahmaputra.
“Government carefully monitors all developments on the Brahmaputra River. As a lower riparian state with considerable established user rights to the waters of the trans-border rivers, government has consistently conveyed its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities and has urged them to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas,” Muraleedharan said.
He said various issues relating to trans-border rivers are discussed with China under the ambit of an institutionalised Expert Level Mechanism which was established in 2006, as well as through diplomatic channels.
In 2017, amid the Dokalam stand-off, China did not share hydrological data on Bramhaputra and Indus with India. It, however, started sharing data with India again from last year. The hydrological data is crucial during monsoon when the rivers swell. The ‘Outline of the 12th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the
People’s Republic of China’ endorsed in March 2011 indicated that three hydropower projects on the main stream of Brahmaputra River in Tibet Autonomous Region were approved for implementation by the Chinese authorities, he said.
A hydropower project at Zangmu was declared fully operational by Chinese authorities in October 2015, the minister added.
