Chinese authorities have assured that its hydropower project over the Yarlung Tsangpo River flowing through India and Bangladesh as Brahmaputra would not affect Bangladesh, a lower riparian country already hit hard by unilateral withdrawal of water from cross-border rivers upstream.
China has claimed that a scientific study for the hydropower dam being constructed on the river under a hydropower project found that it would hurt none, but would only benefit all.
When the issue was raised in a recent meeting held in Beijing with delegations incorporating journalists and politicians from South Asia and Southeast Asia, the Chinese authorities said that they could guarantee that the hydroelectricity project on the river would do no harm to any country.聽
Sun Haiyan, vice-minister at the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, IDCPC in short, and Lin Tao, deputy director general of the Bureau for South and Southeast Asian Affairs, IDCPC, briefed the delegations about the Chinese foreign policy and its development in separate meetings at the IDCPC building on September 16.
Responding to a specific question whether the construction of dam on the trans-boundary river would affect Bangladesh being a lower riparian country, Sun Haiyan said that the project would not have any bad impact.
Both the countries could rather benefit as it would help manage floods, she said.
The IDCPC vice-minister said that the Chinese government was not like some countries that follow the country first policy.
China does not take any development plan at the sacrifice of another country, she explained.聽
The Yarlung Tsangpo becomes the Brahmaputra as it flows into India and then into Bangladesh. The total length of the river system is approximately 2,900km.
The Chinese megaproject, estimated to cost 1.2 trillion yuan or $167 billion, involves several dams, including the one in Medog, which is expected to be the world鈥檚 largest and tallest. The first phase is scheduled to generate power in the early to mid-2030s, according to international media reports.
Concerns were triggered in both India and Bangladesh after Chinese prime minister Li Qiang on July 19 presided over a ceremony marking the start of the construction of the Medog Hydropower Station on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet.
Lives and livelihoods in Bangladesh are already affected due to the unilateral withdrawal of water upstream in India as the two countries share at least 54 rivers with only one water sharing deal for the Ganges River.