(TibetanReview.net, Oct23, 2018) – China has indicated Oct 22 that the Yarlung Tsangpo river was flowing normally after an Oct 17 early morning landslide resulted in the formation of a barrier lake which continued to accumulate water until it was breached on Oct 19, raising fears of a catastrophic flood in downstream Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The flood situation in Yarlung Tsangpo river has “returned to normal”, India’s PTI news agency Oct 22 cited China as saying. China has also said it will continue to share the flood data with India.
“By October 20, the river section of the barrier lake has returned to normal. We will keep close monitoring of the landslide situation and maintain close communication and cooperation with the Indian side through the existing channels,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying was quoted as telling a media briefing.
She has said the Chinese hydrological department had informed India about the situation immediately after the landslide and also launched the emergency reporting mechanism.
“Up to October 22, we have provided seven bits of hydrological information and 110 bits of statistics. We also reported the Indian side of the flow of barrier lake,” Hua was quoted as saying.
The report noted that China had resumed sharing of hydrological data on the Brahmaputra (the India name for the Yarlung Tsangpo) from May 15 after a gap of one year.
It had stopped sharing the data with India last year soon after the Doklam stand-off, claiming that its hydrological stations in Tibet were being upgraded and that the data couldn’t be shared.
But it turned out that China was sharing the data with Bangladesh with little pretence to keep this a secret in a deliberate snub to India.
