Hydropower project on Brahmaputra: India urges China to ensure rights of downstream nations

In the backdrop of media reports that China will build a major hydropower project on the transboundary river Brahmaputra in Tibet, India today said it has urged Chinese authorities to ensure that interests of downstream countries are not harmed by any activity in upstream areas.

"We have taken note of some media reports in this regard. As a lower riparian state with considerable established user rights to the waters of the trans-border rivers, (Indian) Government has consistently conveyed its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities and urged them to ensure that the interests of downstream States are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas," Spokesman of India's External Affairs Ministry Anurag Srivastava told the virtual weekly meeting in New Delhi, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

He was asked a number of questions about China's move to construct a mega hydropower plant on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet.

Proposals for dams on the Brahmaputra in China have evoked strong concerns in India and Bangladesh, the lower riparian countries and Beijing has sought to downplay such anxieties by saying it will keep their interests in mind.

Srivastava said "the Chinese side has conveyed to us 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."

According to Srivastava, India "carefully monitors all developments on the Brahmaputra river."

He said various issues relating to trans-border rivers are discussed with China under the ambit of an institutionalised expert-level mechanism which was set up in 2006 as well as through diplomatic channels.

Srivastava said India intended "to remain engaged with China on the issue of trans-border rivers to safeguard our interests."

China's state-owned Global Times newspaper had recently quoted Yan Zhiyong, chairman of the Power Construction Corp of China, as saying that China will "implement hydropower exploitation in the downstream of the Yarlung Zangbo River (the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra) and the project could serve to maintain water resources and domestic security."

Yan said the project was clearly put forward in the proposals for formulating China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and its long-term goals through 2035 made by the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC).

Read more: China to build hydropower project on upper stream of Brahmaputra