Re: [ALOCHONA] No dams on the Brahmaputra, pleads Northeast

We need a serious look into this water issue. It is much more important than our BAL and BNP politics. If we keep losing water like this, it will be difficult for us to survive as a nation. In this special day (Bijoy Dibosh)  I pray that, God grant us wisdom to set our priorities in order.

-----Original Message-----
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, Dec 15, 2010 7:26 am
Subject: [ALOCHONA] No dams on the Brahmaputra, pleads Northeast

No dams on the Brahmaputra, pleads Northeast
 
 Even as New Delhi downplays fears about China's ambitious plan of
 building mega dams on its side of the Brahmaputra, the Northeast
 continues to express anxiety. RATNADIP CHOUDHURY finds out why
 
 Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao tried to tone down
 concerns over China's aggressive projects of building mega dams on the
 Brahmaputra river, known as Yarlung Tsanpo on the Chinese side. "China
 has assured us that the projects on Brahmaputra are on the
 run-of-the-river projects and are not meant for storing or diverting
 water. We look forward to working closely with China in the critical
 area of environmental and livelihood security" was how Rao tried to
 explain the situation at a seminar. Every time the Centre has been
 asked about this sensitive issue, the same record has been played for
 the past year or so.
 
 To ease tension further, an internal ministry group has gone on to say
 that it has found no evidence yet that China was planning to divert
 the waters from Brahmaputra. But it is not clear if New Delhi has any
 detailed information on China's plan of action.
 
 With reports that China plans to build at least 21 dams on the Yarlung
 Tsanpo and several others on its tributaries, the fear is that Assam
and Arunachal Pradesh would be badly affected. Indian engineers have
 raised apprehensions that China might have plans to divert the 78
 billion cubic metres (bcm) of water to its arid southern part. This is
 the volume of water that the river brings into the Northeast and
 further flows down to the vast plains of Bangladesh. This would leave
 the Northeast and Bangladesh high and dry. For Bangladesh, Brahmaputra
 brings fresh water and fertile silt for farming. Added to it are
 issues related to safety of construction of huge dams on an
 earthquake-prone zone. A solution being advocated is
 institutionalising water-related negotiations with China. While
 Arunachal wants speedy establishment of user rights on the rivers,
 Assam wants concrete step – a water-sharing treaty between the two
 countries. Experts point out that the river balances the entire
 ecological landscape of the region. It's not only China that plans to
 dam the river, India is also aggressive on harnessing the hydropower
 generation capacity of the river and its tributaries. Since there is
 no water-sharing treaty, it is bound to come up as a major
 trans-boundary issue between New Delhi and Beijing.
 
 The UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational uses of
 International Watercourses was adopted in 1997 and is still to be
 ratified. China has opposed the convention during voting and India
chose to abstain. "This just goes to show how much level of legality
 both the countries give to international guidelines on water sharing,"
 says noted environmental activist Neeraj Vagholikar. "Moreover, the UN
 convention will only be a soft law, it will not be enforceable either
 in courts or tribunals. The best way out possibly is to engage China
 in a dialogue on the Brahmaputra."
 
 What India has had in its kitty since 2007 is an Expert Level
 Mechanism (ELM) to share data and discuss trans-boundary issues. There
 is a strong political demand of establishing our user rights by
 building dams on the Siang river in Arunachal. But in doing so, New
 Delhi will also have to address to the massive protest voiced by the
 people of Assam and Arunachal to the mega dams that India wants to
 build on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. While eyebrows have been
 raised at Beijing's plan to construct the mother of all dams at the
 great bend just before the river enters India, New Delhi has to ensure
 that power generation does not destabilise the ecologic balance. Thus
 voices against damming the Brahmaputra are growing.
 
 "People from all over India have joined hands to raise concerns on
 this issue. We will now possibly look forward to people-to-people
 exchanges with China. We are sure there are people in the neighboring
 countries who are opposed to such projects that also threat the
 ecosystem" says KJ Roy of the Pune-based Society for Promoting
 Participative Ecosystem Management.
 
 Any adverse impact of the Chinese dam would be beyond ecology and
 livelihood: the river has nurtured a whole civilisation. "Dams have
 several impacts on people's lives. The dams will not only change the
 character of the river, the social impact of the projects are huge,
 particularly in the catchments area," was the insight offered by
 former water resources secretary Ramaswamy R Iyer at a seminar held in
 Guwahati on the issue. Reports from Beijing suggest that the Zangmu
 dam project is one of the costliest in the world at $1.2 billion. The
 other dam, the Jiacha project, is in its initial phase. A consortium
 of five large Chinese power companies are involved in damming the
 Yarlung Tsangpo. If China later plans to divert water, its flow would
 be depleted by nearly 85 percent during spring and winter and the
 aftereffects might turn disastrous.
 
 What New Delhi has to realise that even a run-of-the-river project
 like Zangmu can lead to severe downstream effect. Issues like
 possibility of alteration in the natural flow of the river, total
 quantity of flow after the construction of the dams needs to be
 clarified with the Chinese. For winning the contest over Brahmaputra
 waters, India will perhaps need to pull the ace out of the pack very
 fast.
 
 http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ws141210No_dams.asp
 
 
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