New Delhi: China has said it will communicate with India on the formation of three artificial lakes caused by a November 17 earthquake and consequent landslides in the Yarlung Tsangpo river in China that pose a huge danger to people living downstream in India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Reacting to a query on an Indian media report, Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in Beijing on Tuesday: “China remains in contact with the Indian side through existing channels on the issue concerning cross-border rivers”.
This newspaper had reported on Tuesday that at least three huge artificial lakes holding colossal volumes of water have formed on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in the Great Bend region after a 6.4 Richter scale earthquake and its accompanying aftershocks last month, posing a danger of colossal proportions to the people living downstream in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Welcoming the Chinese reaction, Prof Nayan Sharma, a prominent river engineering expert presently with IIT Roorkee, told this newspaper: “In view of Chinese offer for support, a transnational joint disaster team Task Force should work out all possible measures on war footing to save lives and property in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam”.
The devastation that the sudden bursting of these lakes can wreak is mind-boggling as the Yarlung Tsangpo takes a 180 degree turn as the waters plummet by about 2,000 metres in a mere 30 km stretch just before entering Arunachal Pradesh where it takes the name of Siang before becoming the Brahmaputra in Assam.
Prof Sharma warned that the numerous glaciers feeding the Yarlung Tsangpo near Tsela Dzong will greatly aggravate the situation in coming days and months.
