advertisement
China has alerted India about the rising water in river Tsangpo, called Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Brahmaputra in Assam, leading to possibility of floods in downstream areas, Arunachal Pradesh MP Ninong Ering said on Thursday, 30 August.
A senior official of the Union Water Resources Ministry said it was an unprecedented situation on the Chinese side where the river, known as Tsangpo in Tibet, broke a 150-year record with swollen waters and hence China has shared the information with India.
Ering said the communication from China came following heavy rains across the rivers catchment area.
According to a Chinese government report, 9,020 cumec of water was discharged into Tsangpo/Brahmaputra river, as observed at various stations on Wednesday, 29 August.
The MP said Siang has been calm till Thursday, but people in East and Upper Siang districts were cautioned.
"My own village is in danger of getting flooded," he said.
The Union Water Resources Ministry official said Indian experts have analysed the data shared by China and came to the conclusion that the effect may not be so strong in the country even through it was an alarming situation in China.
This was the first time this year that China shared the river data with India, the official said.
China began sharing data from 15 May, while it started sharing data for the Sutlej river from 1 June. The sharing of data came after the two sides held talks over the issue in March tin 2018. The data is shared twice daily until October, 2018.
The Brahmaputra originates from China's Tibet and flows into Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called Siang, and then Assam, where it becomes Brahmaputra, and later drains into the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh.
"They shared data as per the MoU between us. We analaysed the data and found that there was no danger on the Indian side," said another ministry official.
There is nothing to panic as the Central Water Commission (CWC) has reported that the water level at the Grand Canyon of Tsangpo on 14 August was 8,070 cumec and an increase should not inflict severe damages, Arunachal government officials said in Itanagar quoting the Chinese communication.
The unusually high waves in the Siang river have created fear among the people of the two Arunachal Pradesh districts and the administration has cautioned the people to refrain from venturing into it for fishing, swimming and other activities, an official said.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)