Amid concerns over China's plan to build the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, on Friday said that the project will not affect the riparian states.
While downplaying the apprehensions, Ning assured us that the safety issues have been addressed through decades of study.
The project estimated to cost around USD 137 billion is located in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region, along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur frequently.
In-depth studies were carried out for decades, said Mao.
In a media briefing, Mao said that China has been always responsible for the development of cross-border rivers. "The project will not negatively affect the lower reaches," she said in an apparent reference to concerns in India and Bangladesh.
Mao also said that the country will maintain communication with riparian states through existing channels and step up cooperation on disaster prevention and relief for the benefit of the people by the river.
China's hydropower development in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River (Brahmaputra River) aims to speed up the development of clean energy and respond to climate change and extreme hydrological disasters.
The construction of the world's largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet was approved by China on Wednesday.
The dam will be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra River makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.
Since the approval concerns have risen in India as the dam empowering China to control the water flow could enable Beijing to release large amounts of water flooding border areas in times of hostilities because of its size and scale.
India too is building a dam over Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh.
India and China established the Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers under which China provides India with hydrological information on the Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers during the flood seasons.
