Itanagar: The Siang (Brahmaputra) river
originating from Tibet was suddenly found to have almost dried
up at a town in Arunachal Pradesh, a state government
spokesman said on Thursday night.
People of century-old Pasighat town in East Siang
district found that the water level of the river receded so
much this evening that it almost dried, Tako Dabi said.
Dabi, also the political advisor to Chief Minister Nabam
Tuki, expressed apprehension that China could have diverted
the water of the river, which is known as Yarlong Tsangpo in
Tibet, or there could be some artificial blockade due to which
this has happened.
On June 9, 2000, the water level of Siang rose suddenly
by 30 m and inundated almost the entire township causing
widespread destruction to property besides claiming seven
lives following the collapse of a hydropower dam in Tibet,
said Dabi, who himself inspected the dried bed of the river.
Dabi suggested that the Centre and its agencies like the
Central Water Commission should immediately conduct a study in
collaboration with the state government to find the crux of
the problem.
The panic of the people cannot be simply brushed off, he
said.
Yarlung Tsangpo, the highest river in the world, is a
watercourse that originates at Tamlung Tso Lake in western
Tibet, southeast of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar.
It later forms the South Tibet Valley and Yarlung Tsangpo
Grand Canyon, before entering India at Tuting in Arunachal as
Siang, takes the name of Brahmaputra in Assam and enters
Bangladesh and is known as Megna.
In the Upper Mekong Basin in Yunnan Province, China has
planned to construct eight cascade hydropower dams, the first
of which, the Manwan Dam, was completed in 1996.
PTI
