HP floods show Beijing-Delhi link is dry

As the first news from Himachal about Parechu floods flowed in over the weekend, India got in touch with Beijing.

In Delhi, the Foreign Office called up the Chinese Embassy here and in Beijing, the Indian Ambassador Nalin Surie has been in contact with the Chinese government.

While the Chinese have promised all necessary help, they seem to have had difficulties in gaining access to the dam formed on the Parechu river last year by a landslide. Given the remote location of the dam and the practical problems of manipulating a large water body, the Chinese authorities were unable to offer much help.

In fact, the Government’s assessment today that the floods in Himachal might have been due to the bursting of the dam is based on information gathered by India’s national technical means and not that obtained from China.

Like many of Asia’s great rivers, the Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra too rise in Tibet. Delhi and Beijing have in recent years agreed on information exchange on flood season flows of some of these rivers.

When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao came to Delhi in April, the Chinese side ‘‘agreed to take measures for controlled release of accumulated water of the landslide dam on the river Parechu, as soon as conditions permit’’, the joint statement issued at the end of the visit said.

Beijing did not appear to be in possession of real time information let alone attempting a ‘‘controlled’’ release of the Parechu waters.

The Parechu crisis over the last year represents only a small part of the huge challenge India and China face in dealing with their shared rivers. And there is a time bomb ticking away in the Brahmaputra.

The Brahmaputra, which runs for more than 2000 km in Tibet before entering Arunachal Pradesh, has been relatively unutilised by China until now.

But as China focuses like a laser beam on the development of Tibet and is determined to expand domestic food production across the nation, its exploitation of the Brahmaputra will inevitably rise.

There have been reports about Chinese plans to divert rivers from the south to the north and of additional dam building in Tibet, including a spectacular mega project on the ‘‘great bend’’ in the Brahmaputra just north of Arunachal Pradesh.

While many of these reports are speculative, India is naturally concerned.

The chief ministers of the North Eastern states have been pressing the Centre to take up the management of the Brahmaputra with China and Bhutan.

But pooling resources and generating a habit of cooperation in the Himalayas would require a lot more political will in New Delhi and Beijing than we have seen in the recent crisis. In any event, nature does not respect national boundaries.