India must not interfere in China's dam plans

Shillong, June 29: Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said India has no right to interfere in China's plans to construct a dam at Yarlung Tsangpo point on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet.

''They (China) have every right to construct a dam in their own country and we have no right to opposed them,'' Mr Shinde told sources here today, but refused to elaborate any further.

China had planned to construct a dam at Yarlung Tsangpo point on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet province to divert 200 billion cubic metres of water annually to the Yellow River, threatening a major ecological disaster in Brahmaputra basin and Bangladesh within the next few years.

Several NGOs in North East India and Bangladesh fear that Asom and Bangladesh would turn into a desert in the near future as water flow from the Brahmaputra-Jamuna river, which is about 60 per cent of the total water flow, will fall drastically if China builds the dam.

''One-third of the water flow from Brahmaputra-Jamuna would decline if the project is implemented,'' they had claimed.

UNI