A Congress MLA in Arunachal Pradesh has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a reminder to Beijing for the resumption of the sharing of hydrological data on rivers originating in Tibet.
Ninong Ering, a former Lok Sabha member who represents the Pasighat West Assembly constituency now, said the river-related information from China stopped coming two years ago. The lack of data has prevented people downstream in India from taking timely action for avoiding disasters, he said.
The Siang river has once again become a threat for the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam after a a series of earthquakes caused a landslide that created a natural dam across Yigong Tsangpo, one of the major tributaries of Yarlung Tsangpo in southern Tibet, Mr. Ering said.
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The Yarlung Tsanspo flows into Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, which meets two other rivers to form the Brahmaputra in Assam downstream.
Around 15 earthquakes ranging between 4.0 and 5.0 in magnitude reportedly occurred within a 300 square kilometre area upstream of the Yigong Tsangpo River within 20 days in July. The bursting of landslide-induced natural dams often leads to flash floods downstream, the MLA pointed out.
“The floods in Arunachal, Assam and other states of India have been very devastating this time, and if this dam bursts during this monsoon season then the downstream would be tenuous,” Mr. Ering wrote.
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The legislator also said there are hundreds of glaciers in the region and the change in climate is accelerating the melting process. “This is going to increase the floods. The risk of outburst floods from the glacial lakes is also going to increase in the future,” he said.
The MLA called for the establishment of automatic weather stations at all border points from where the rivers flow into the country.
“The Central Water Commission needs to collect and disseminate the flow rate data in advance. The water level data being disseminated at present is useless in hydrological modelling and flood assessment,” he said.