Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday said China should ensure that the dam it intended to build on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra river did not impact the downstream Indian States.
He also said responsible countries were expected to heed the international water policy and that the Ministry of External Affairs would deal with the issue of dam construction in Tibet.
“I am not the competent authority to speak on the matter, but our government wants an assurance from the Chinese government that the construction of the dam will not create flood-like situations in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam,” he told journalists.
“There is an international water policy [dealing with trans-boundary rivers] and the Indian government is well aware of problems faced due to such acts of the Chinese government earlier,” Mr. Khandu said.
China’s media reported on November 29 that authorities had given the go-ahead for a Chinese hydropower company to construct the first downstream dam on the Yarlung Zangbo, which flows into Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang and meets two other rivers to form the Brahmaputra in Assam.