China yesterday rejected as "false and untrue," a media report that it was planning to build a 1,000-km long tunnel to divert water from the Brahmaputra river in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh, to the parched Xinjiang region.
<img title="India as a riparian state had already flagged its concerns to China about various dams being built by it on the Brahmaputra river. Pic/PTI" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/nov/Brahmaputra-river.jpg" alt="India as a riparian state had already flagged its concerns to China about various dams being built by it on the Brahmaputra river. Pic/PTI" /> India as a riparian state had already flagged its concerns to China about various dams being built by it on the Brahmaputra river. Pic/PTI
Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on Monday said that Chinese engineers were testing techniques that could be used to build the tunnel, the world's longest.
"This is untrue. This is a false report," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing when asked about the report.
China will continue to attach great importance to cross-border river cooperation, she said.
According to the report, the proposed tunnel, which would drop down from the world's highest plateau in multiple sections connected by waterfalls, would provide water in China's largest administrative division, comprising vast swathes of deserts and dry grasslands.
The water would be diverted from the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southern Tibet, which turns into the river Brahmaputra once it enters India, to the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, the report had said.
India as riparian state had already flagged its concerns to China about various dams being built by it on the Brahmaputra river, which is known in China as Yarlung Tsangpo.
But experts say Despite China's denial of such a tunnel, defence expert Uday Bhaskar said, "It's a very disturbing report that now China wants to embark on world's so called longest tunnel and divert water from Brahmaputra. India, China and Bangladesh don't have a joint treaty for the management of Brahmaputra, except the international norms that say if you are an upper riparian then you have to be very cognizant of the water sharing and how any project would affect lower riparian, in this case - India and Bangladesh."
Another defence expert V Mahalingam emphasised that India must have a water sharing agreement with China. "China has been diverting waters to River Brahmaputra for their hydro-electric projects. Unfortunately, India and China don't have a river water sharing agreement. It will not only affect India but Bangladesh besides other north-eastern states. Water is going to be a very important resource in the future. This matter should be brought to the notice of the world bodies as the sufferers are going to be the common man. We need to have a comprehensive river water sharing agreement with China," Mahalingam said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the media that it was a false report

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the media that it was a false report

No plan to divert Brahmaputra waters through tunnel, says China

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No plan to divert Brahmaputra waters through tunnel, says China

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