Brahmaputra and the Indo-China equation

On July 30, the usually combative Uma Bharti, the union minister for water resources, exhibited a diffident demeanor in the Lok Sabha when she gave out that China may construct three more hydropower projects on the Brahmaputra in Tibet (called Yarlung Tsangpo there) under its recently announced 12th Five Year Plan.

She added two other important facts. First, she indicated that an earlier such power project at Zangmu, other than the proposed three, is a run-of-the-river type. Secondly their effects and significance cannot be judged at the moment due to non-availability of data.

However, instead of clearing the air of confusion and apprehension, this is likely to cause more doubts. There is an existing agreement between India and China which covers exchange of hydrological data between the two countries on the Brahmaputra.

Has this agreement fallen into disuse? Secondly, the said projects being run-of-the-river type does not hold out any assurance because even these types of projects entail creation of storage dams.

Ominous warnings are close at hand. On March 1, 2012, the river Siang (the local name of the Brah­maputra in Arunachal Pradesh) had run completely dry at a place called Pasighat where it normally used to be very wide. Although the river picked up momentum later on, it has not yet attained its former virility.

Moreover, all the four hydro projects will be situated very close to each other and this complicates the matter further as large amounts of water will be stored within a narrow geographical expanse leading to the possibility of depriving northeastern India of not only water but also the much-needed silt which makes the Assam plains fertile.

There may be floods if China decides to arbitrarily release water from these dams during the monsoon. According to many experts, the massive earthquake in 2008 bre­a­ching parts of the Three Gorges Dam was caused by the stupendous weight of water of the nearby Zipingpu Dam which was just half-a-kilometre from the geological fault line.

If such a catastrophe occurs again, areas of Assam and Arun­achal Pradesh will go under water. The crux of the problem is that there is no water sharing treaty between India and China covering trans-national rivers and using the international law that existing usage of water will determine respective shares of countries, Beijing has pushed New Delhi to the wall. India has only itself to blame.

By AMITAVA MUKHERJEE