“The upper course of the river is very vulnerable and complicated in terms of geological and environment factors,” says a freelance Chinese scientist Dr. Yang Yong. “We need to address the crucial issues including the climate change impact at the river’s source (in Tibet), flow control mechanism and transparent mutual - side communication of disaster information and effective alerting mechanism should be shared among the concerned countries,” he added.

Brahmaputra is one of the highest discharge carrying rivers in the world covering an estimated distance of 3848 kms which originates from the Angci glacier in the Tibet plateau, flows through China, India and Bangladesh under the names of Yarlung Zangbo, Brahmaputra and Jamuna respectively before it merges with the Padma, the main distributaries of the Ganges, then the Meghna, before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. However due to its geographical location and extreme climatic conditions, the concerned authorities of the respective countries didn’t have the adequate scientific information or data of the river which has made the situation more alarming.

We have to communicate with each other. It will be havoc in Assam if there is no alarm bell or warning bell from our neighbouring country about any natural disaster in the upper course of the river

Claudia Sadoff, the head of the World Bank’s South Asia Water Initiative in her key note presentation also clearly highlighted that little data was available on the climate change effects on Brahmaputra river basin, which made it difficult for ecological predictions. This was a fact stressed upon by the issue experts later during the workshop.

In regard to media reports of diverting the river course towards China’s dry area, the Chinese scientist Dr. Yang said that there is no sign of taking up the proposed project at present. He added that there was a proposal for a hydro-project along the upper course of the river in Tibet. According to the Chinese scientist, the said proposal aims to take water from the Yarlung Zangbo river through a 20 km tunnel somewhere near the ‘big bend’ of the mighty river near Bayi town under South West Tibet’s Motuo county towards a little known tributary of the river without disturbing its course and make it flow through a ladder of nine different dams to generate a projected power supply of 49,000 MW before its joining at the opposite bend of the river’s main course. The projected height of each of the proposed nine dams of the project is said to be between 100 to 300 metres and the projected install capacity of each dam is estimated at between 4900 to 6300 MW. However, it will not affect the river course, the 52 year old scientist who had spent half of his lifetime on research works on the 1500 km China section of the river, claimed it was just in the proposal stage.’ It may be worth mentioning here that Jiao Yong, Vice Minister of Water Resources of China had recently said his country had no plans to divert the Brahmaputra, considering “Technical difficulties, environmental impacts and state relations” referring to India’s concerns.

Based in Chengdu,  Dr. Yang, the Vice-Director of the Expert Committee of China Foundation for Desertification Control and the Chairman of Hengduanshan Society, urged the concerned parties to pay more attention to the climate change effects prior to the development plans. He said there was a sign of glacier melting at the rate of 200 to 500 metres in the last two decades reducing the snow at the source of the river.

“We also need an integrated approach without delay besides taking up other multidisciplinary views as climate change is just like a Titanic ship,” Director Malik Fida A Khan of Bangladesh based Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services sharing a similar sentiment, said. “There would be no difference among the first class or third class passengers,” Khan said.

Expressing the need to share trans-boundary cooperation and summer time hydrological data of the mighty river, Dr. Partha J Das of Aaranayak, a scientific and industrial research organization of India based in Guwahati also urged the concerned parties to have a bilateral treaty relating to the sharing of flood forecasting as well. On the other hand, journalists from India, Bangladesh and China who attended the workshop also agreed to share information while reporting on effects of climate change in the Yarlung Zangbo / Brahmaputra river basin. The journalists agreed that there was an urgent need for collaboration to access information and better understand the emerging conflicts and disaster situations across the river basin due to climate change and other development plans including dams and hydel-power projects during the interaction sessions. The group also agreed to give more voice to the most vulnerable communities in the region. “We have to communicate with each other. It will be havoc in Assam if there is no alarm bell or warning bell from our neighbouring country about any natural disaster in the upper course of the river,” said Chandan Kumar Duarah, an Indian scribe who has been reporting on the Brahmaputra for many years. He added that “India on the other hand should co-operate with China for sharing water resources besides taking up other precautionary measures on flood warning etc.”

A young Chinese journalist Li Jing said, “Media in our country is seriously considering climate change effects and other environment reports as it directly or indirectly helps in forming a government policy on climate change.”

Sobhapati Samom