Administrative authorities in districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam through which the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers flow have advised riverbank residents to be on alert after a landslip blocked the Tsangpo, their main source in China.
Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India, said that Beijing had informed New Delhi soon after a landslip took place near Jiala village in Milin county in the lower ranges of the Yaluzangbu (Tsangpo) river in Tibet Autonomous Region of China on October 17.
Barrier lake
The river was blocked and a barrier lake formed as a result, he said. “The Chinese side will closely monitor the situation of the barrier lake, and continue to notify the Indian side the follow-up developments through bilaterally agreed channels timely,” he said. The Tsangpo flows into Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called the Siang.
The Siang meets two other rivers – Lohit and Dibang – in Assam downstream to form the Brahmaputra.
“We have received information from the gauge reading station at Pasighat (East Siang district headquarters) that the water level of the Siang is decreasing since Wednesday. We have cautioned people about a flash flood if the blockade in the Tsangpo bursts,” East Siang’s Deputy Commissioner Tamiyo Tatak said.
“What the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh need is a regular update from China and advance warning if the barrier across the Tsangpo is close to bursting. There should also be an estimation of how much inundation could take place and where,” Assam-based hydrologist Partha Jyoti Das said.
