NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (NNN-BSS) – India has expressed its concern over construction of a “super dam”, the largest installed hydro-power capacity in the world, by China on its part of the Brahmaputra river.
China will build the dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, which flows into Arunachal Pradesh in India where it is called Siang and then to Assam as Brahmaputra before flowing into Bangladesh.
“We have taken note of some media reports in this regard. Government carefully monitors all developments on the Brahmaputra River,” said official spokesperson of Indian Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava in a weekly media briefing here.
Responding to a query, he said government of India 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.
The spokesperson said, “As a lower riparian state, we have considerable established user rights to the waters of the trans-border rivers.”
Giving details, he said the Chinese side has conveyed 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.
He said that various issues relating to trans-border rivers were discussed with China under the ambit of an institutionalized Expert Level Mechanism, which was established in 2006, as well as through diplomatic channels.
Anurag said that India intends to remain engaged with China on the issue of trans-border rivers to safeguard the country’s interests.
The new dam’s ability to generate hydropower could be three times that of central China’s Three Gorges Dam, which has the largest installed hydropower capacity in the world, the state-run tabloid Global Times of China reported on Sunday.
“China will build a hydropower project on the Yarlung Zangbo River, one of the major waters in Asia that also passes through India and Bangladesh,” the Global Times reported.
The report says that the initial work on the dam began with Powerchina on Oct 16 signing a strategic cooperation agreement covering the 14th Five-Year Plan with the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) government. — NNN-BSS
