NEW DELHI, Jan 15 – In a development having wider ramifications for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, India and China on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to share hydrological data on the rivers including Brahmapu-tra and Siang, flowing through China into the country to aid flood forecasting. The MoU was among number of agreements signed between the two countries to mark the visit of Chinese Premier, Zhu Rongji. The MoU on making available to India hydrological data has a special bearing on the North-East and is expected to go a long way in better flood management in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Announcing the signing of the MoU a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs (MLA) described it as a significant development that will mark the beginning in data sharing with China.
The signing of the MoU is seen as a major achievement for the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR), which is often clueless about the recurring floods in the North-East. In absence of any indication from China, from where the major river system Brahmaputra-Siang and its tributaries originate, the Ministry is often caught unawares by the floods that devastate Assam and Arunachal Pradesh every year. The MoU itself came after much hard work by the MWR and MEA, which had despatched a team of top officials to Beijing to open negotiations on sharing on hydrological data with India. Eager to improve relations with India, the Chinese side obliged. Although the signing of the MoU is unlikely to actually help in controlling the floods, it would, however, go a long way in better management of floods preventing flood damages, said a MWR official.
The urgent need for signing of the MoU came in to sharp focus after the devastating flash floods of June 2000 that wreaked havoc in four districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh left 26 people dead besides destroying crops and properties worth crores of rupees. The cause of the flood that even now remained a mystery for the officials here was attributed by China to natural causes. But reports reaching India gave a different picture and according to one breaching of a dam in Tibet region may have caused the floods. But China brushed off the report and clarified that there was no heavy rainfall had occurred in Tibet region and instead held that floods in Arunachal Pradesh was because of heavy rainfall in India. But officials pointed out that on the fateful day of June 11, Arunachal Pradesh recorded an increase in water level of 30 metres in 10 hours, unlikely to be caused by rainfall.