NINONG ERING SHOOTS LETTER TO MoS FOR WATER RESOURCES TO REVISIT WATER TIES WITH CHINA

Guwahati, October 27, 2018:

Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Arunachal East, Ninong Ering has shot a letter to Minister of State (MoS), Water Resources, Arjun Ram Meghwal, on the issue to revisit water ties with China.

Expressing concern over the dispute between India and China over the water of the Brahmaputra (called Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet), Ering has appealed to the central government to sign a treaty with China for putting a cap on hydroelectric power project activities on the Yarlung Tsangpo river.

Ering stated in the letter that India, once again, is facing the threat of an impending water war from China. He urged the MoS to mount diplomatic pressure on China.

Ering wrote that in the past decade, tensions often escalated between the two countries in their bid to maximise the hydroelectric power extracted from the river basin. Recently, a China-based news agency released a report stating that China plans to build a 1,000 km long tunnel (set to record as the world’s largest) between the geologically fragile Tibet and the region of Xinjiang province, with the aim to supply Tsangpo’s (Siang in Arunachal) water to the latter and turn it into ‘modern California’.

“Chinese officials were quick to refute the existence of such a project, especially since it proclaims devastation for the north eastern region of India, especially Assam and Arunachal Pradesh including Bangladesh which is heavily dependent on this river economically as well as ecologically. However, if history is any indicator, the country has carried out its hydrological projects unabashedly, leading to great devastation in countries like Vietnam which was agriculturally dependent on the Mekong River,” Ering mentioned in the letter.

Speaking to InsideNe, Ninong Ering said that he has suggested the central government to impose a embargo in India, which is one of the biggest buyer of Chinese goods. He added that China manufactures almost everything right from idols of Indian Gods, Diwali lights to Holi colours and India, especially the northeastern states are the biggest buyers.

Ering reiterated that northeast has faced great repercussions from the disturbed ties between India and China. He added that the central government could not ignore the threat that China poses and should strive to make the northeastern region less dependent on the water of the Siang and Brahmaputra, which is currently yielded as a weapon by China.