New Delhi,July,23:The plans of China to divert the course of Brahmaputra River for the power projects is the threat for densely populated region of North-eastern part of India, because Brahmaputra is the life line and peoples are feeling agitated over China’s ambitious efforts to redraw its water map. Communist neighbor has made an ambitious project to divert the Brahmaputra from its upper reaches is being seen as a direct affront to India and a violation of International norms of sharing river waters.
Once the construction of dam will be completed, the control on the water of Brahmaputra will be in the key of China. As the Brahmaputra plays an important role to set the tone in North East, the life and biodiversity of the region will be adversely affected by this move.
The Brahmaputra flows for about 1,625- km inside the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and for a further 918-km inside India. This is not the first time that stress is building up between India and China over Brahmaputra projects, which could affect the flow of water into India and Bangladesh as well.
India raised the voice over the construction of a 510 MW dam on the Brahmaputra with the Chinese leadership for many times. Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia had also expressed similar concerns over eight dams being built on the Mekong River. The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China’s accelerating programme of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger environmental imbalance, natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, and divert vital water supplies.
A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world’s most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications. On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost twenty dams have been built or are under construction while some forty more are proposed.
China is disrupting the water flows of the region to meet their vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a sole target of criticism and suspicion.
“Whether China intends to use water as a political weapon or not, it is acquiring the capability to turn off the tap if it wants to — a leverage it can use to keep any riparian neighbors on good behavior,” says Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New Delhi’s Center for Policy Research and author of the forthcoming book Water: Asia’s New Battlefield.
Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, has also warned against the dangers stemming over the Tibetan plateau. “It’s something very, very essential. So, since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers... I think India should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody’s interests, including Chinese people,” he said about the talking of Chinese intentions over the redrawing water map of the region.
Although China is saying that it is constructing the dam to produce power but actually some hidden agendas are also associated with it.
The water of Brahmaputra will be a strong point to blackmail India. If China blocks the water in Brahmaputra, it can create famine in the whole NE region because it is the life line of NE region. India needs to take this issue seriously to the Chinese government. The attention of international community must be attracted. But the problem here is that China does not care for anyone in front of their own interest. It is trying an act of international bully. India needs a totally different strategy to tackle China. But can it handle being a soft state it doesn’t look so.
Thus, the important concern is that whether the Indian government will wake up before it’s too late. India had lost its dignity in past because of dormant diplomacy of Nehru the time when China begin to construct the Sinkiang to Ali highway in 1951 than India showed their worry about the highway in written on October 18, 1958. In his conversation with Henry Kissinger , the than Chinese premier Zhou Enlai quoted “ even three years after the road was built, Nehru didn’t know about it. In my discussion with Nehru on the Sino–Indian boundary in 1956, he suddenly raised the issue of the road. I said, ‘you didn’t even know we were building a road for the last three years, and now you suddenly say that is your territory, I remarked upon how strange this was”. Although if it did not happen in the case of Brahmaputra, in the case of highway projects and railway projects, we all know Indian government disappointed the nation every time they known for, wakes up after the happening of policy disaster.
China not only has a host of projects lined up across the Brahmaputra River, but also for the Arun River that is called Kosi when it enters India.
India isn't the only Nation voicing these concerns as China's abhorrence of any proposal to soak the natural resources has caused consternation in other south-east Asian countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos as well. China is considering building three more mega dams on the downstream of Mekong River in addition six existing ones. Mekong is the life line of these lower riparian states.
India always downplayed the apprehensions that a dam being constructed by China across the Brahmaputra will affect the country’s interest, saying the project is not a cause for "immediate alarm".
"It is a fact that China is constructing a dam at Zangmu in middle reaches of Yarlung Tsango (as Brahmaputra is called in Tibet). We have ascertained from our own sources that this a run of the river hydro-electric project which does not store water and will not adversely impact downstream areas in India," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna says.
"Therefore, I believe there is no cause for immediate alarm," he told reporters while replying to a question on reports of construction of a dam by China on Brahmaputra River
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