NEW DELHI: India took an unusually sharp stand against China's unilateral moves to dam the Brahmaputra, saying it had "established user rights" to the river. Asserting itself for the first time, India asked China "to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas".
In its new blueprint for the energy sector for 2011-2015, China announced it would build three hydropower bases on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, at Dagu, Jiacha and Jiexu. A hydropower station at Zangmu is already under construction. The Chinese announcement earlier this week was not preceded by any consultation or sharing of information with New Delhi.
While this actually indicates China's consistent policy that it does not believe it needs to engage India on this, the Indian response represents a distinct change in policy. Thus far, India's stated position was that New Delhi "agreed" with the Chinese statement that it would "not hurt India's interests".
As recently as March 2012, during the visit of Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, external affairs ministry officials said on record, "India and China have had many exchanges on this subject including at the highest levels, between the prime ministers of the two countries. The Chinese side has on many occasions told us that they will not do anything on trans-border rivers which will hurt the interests of the lower riparian countries like India. Our own look into this whole question has also led us to believe that what the Chinese are telling us is correct."
Answering a question in Rajya Sabha in November 2011, the then foreign minister SM Krishna said, "The Chinese premier, during his visit to India in December 2010, said that China's development of upstream areas will never harm downstream interests. Government has ascertained that the dam at Zangmu in the Tibet Autonomous Region is a run-of-the-river hydro-electric project, which does not store water and will not adversely impact the downstream areas in India."
In fact, in the past few years, India has consistently tried to play down the threat that Chinese construction poses. Even when local reports said that in Pasighat town in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, the water level of the Brahmaputra river receded so much that it was almost dry. In fact, Chinese spokespersons have even quoted Krishna to show that India "understood" the Chinese position.
In October, 2011, Jiao Yong, China's vice-minister for water resources, was quoted as saying, "The Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river flows across China's Qinghai Tibet plateau. Many Chinese citizens have been calling for greater usage of this river. However, considering the technical difficulties, the actual need of diversion, and the possible impact on the environment and state-to-state relations, the Chinese government has no plans to conduct any diversification project in this river."
Clearly a lot has changed since then. For India, the biggest problem is not merely that China continues to build dams on the river with impunity, and might implement its long-term plan of diverting the waters of the Brahmaputra to its parched northeast. It is that China refuses to accede to any international rule of law. There is no bilateral water treaty between India and China. China is not ready to even discuss the issue with India.
Indian officials say a large proportion of the catchment of the Brahmaputra lies within Indian territory, which will not be affected by the Chinese dams. Within the government, there is an urgency to dam the waters of the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. Some of this makes Bangladesh uneasy, but India is going out of its way to accommodate Dhaka's concerns even to the extent of giving it a stake in these projects. None of this is forthcoming from China to India, however.
Ensure our states aren’t hit by your Brahmaputra dams: India to China
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Ensure our states aren’t hit by your Brahmaputra dams: India to China
