The inter-ministerial committee of secretaries has expressed deep concern over the construction of canal and two large dams over Tsangpo river in Tibet and decided to mount pressure on Beijing by using the UN convention on Law of Non-Navigation Uses of International Watercourses, which disallows countries from barring natural
flow of water of any international river. The committee which had its meeting recently disagreed to the arguments of China that its ongoing mega dam and western canal projects would not affect the stream of Tsangpo river which flows down to Arunachal and Assam.
Disclosing that Indian authorities recently confronted its counterpart in Beijing with satellite images and apprised its concern over ongoing construction of western canal to divert the waters of the Tsangpo to feed China’s parched Northeast province, authoritative sources and members of the inter-ministerial committee told this news paper that China was carrying out its plan discreetly but this time with the help of satellite images, they were compelled to admit the construction of the canal. China is yet to admit their plan to divert Tsangpo through western canal. About its mega dam projects, Beijing claims that they are a run-of-the-river project, involving no storage or diversion of water.
The inter-ministerial committee has also advised the power ministry to work out plans to convince and clarify “seismic apprehensions” of the people of Northeast, posed by the construction of dams and reservoirs in Arunachal Pradesh.