China govt blocks Brahmaputra tributary, water flow may be hit
BEIJING: India will keep a close watch on the flow in the Brahmaputra river in coming weeks after China announced it was blocking one of its tributaries in Tibet to construct the country’s most expensive hydroelectric projects.
On Friday, China said it was blocking the Xiabuqu river, one of the many tributaries of the Yarlung Zangbo, (which is how the Brahmaputra is known in China) to build a dam as part of the Lalho hydroelectric project at Xigase in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Brahmaputra, one of India’s major rivers, originates in Tibet and flows into Arunachal Pradesh and Assam before going into Bangladesh.
The impact of the blocking of the river wasn’t immediately clear – or whether it would have any impact at all – but coming against the backdrop of the spat between New Delhi and Islamabad over the Indus Waters Treaty, the news is expected to ruffle more than diplomatic feathers in India.
Like the Brahmaputra, the Indus too originates in the Tibetan plateau in China.
“Tibet on Friday blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River as part of its most expensive hydro project,” the official Xinhua news agency reported. The project is located in an area close to Sikkim.
“The Lalho project on the Xiabuqu River in Xigaze involves an investment of 4.95 billion yuan ($740 million),” said Zhang Yunbao, head of the project’s administration bureau.
“The project was scheduled to be completed in 2019. Construction began in June 2014.”
The report added, “The reservoir was designed to store up to 295 million cubic metres of water and help irrigate 30,000 hectares of farmland.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what impact the dam will have on the Brahmaputra when it enters Arunachal Pradesh.
There is no evidence so far to suggest that the blocking of the river will have any major impact on water flows downstream.
Since the 185-kilometre Xiabuqu river isn’t a trans-border one, it doesn’t fall under the ambit of a bilateral mechanism to discuss rivers between China and India.