India “worried” that China will announce plans for a mega dam on the Brahmaputra in Tibet. Photo of people cycling through a flooded area, AFP
By AFP - Agence France Presse
India monitors Chinese plan for mega dam in Tibet
India said on Friday it had raised concerns with China over the construction of a planned mega hydroelectric dam upstream in Tibet, saying it will “monitor and take necessary steps to protect our interests.”
If built, the dam would surpass the record-breaking Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China, potentially having serious impacts on millions of people downstream in India and Bangladesh.
Last month, a report by China's official news agency, Xinhua, announced the project on the river - known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet and the Brahmaputra in India - linking it to Beijing's carbon neutrality targets and economic objectives in the Tibet region.
China “has been urged to ensure that activities in upstream areas do not harm the interests of states downstream of the Brahmaputra,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday.
Jaiswal told reporters that New Delhi “will continue to monitor and take necessary steps to protect our interests.”
India has established rights over river waters and “has consistently expressed... our views and concerns... about mega projects on rivers in its (Chinese) territory,” he added.
“This was reiterated along with the need for transparency and consultations with downstream countries after the last report.”
Last month, China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing “has always maintained a responsible attitude towards the development of transboundary rivers” and that the hydropower project “aims to accelerate the development of clean energy and address climate change.”
“The project will have no negative effects downstream,” he said, adding that they will ‘also maintain communication with the riparian countries’.
In addition to downstream concerns, in the past, environmentalists have also warned about the irreversible impact of such megaprojects on the ecologically sensitive Tibetan plateau.
Both India and China, neighbors and rival Asian powers share thousands of kilometers of disputed borders, where tens of thousands of soldiers are deployed on both sides.
bb/pjm/fox
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