Will the Brahmaputra Become the ‘Black’ River?

The Satesman reported that on December 13, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang refuted reports that construction on the Chinese side of the border with Arunachal Pradesh had caused pollution turning the water of the Brahmaputra black. The ‘construction’ referred to an article in the South China Morning Post in which Chinese engineers were exploring the possibility of building tunnels to divert water from the Yarlung Tsangpo or Yarlung Zangbo, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibetan and Pǔtōnghuà, to Xinjiang and other water scarce regions of China. The spokesperson stated “I have never heard of the project mentioned by the Indian side. It is hoped that the Indian side will not conduct unfounded speculation and reports.” The Global Times had earlier carried a similar article in August.

Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering wrote to the Prime Minister on November 26, urging the Prime Minister’s Office to verify the reason behind the muddy water of the Siang River. The letter referenced the South China Morning Post article which had been published in October. The Siang River is one of the tributaries of the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. On December 6, a report from the State Water Quality Testing Laboratory in Itanagar stated that the water of the Siang is unfit for human consumption. The sample tested had been taken from Pasighat on November 29. The report stated that the turbidity and iron content of the water were both beyond permissible limits.

On December 10 Scroll.in reported that Assam had also sent water samples for testing at IIT Guwahati and IIT Hyderabad. PTI reported that Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated "Brahmaputra has suddenly become muddy. So we have tested few samples in Tezpur … people are also saying there is a lot of cement which has now mixed with the water." He speculated that the construction of a dam or an industrial accident in China could have been the cause.

On December 11 All Guwahati Students Union (AGSU) formed a human chain on the banks of the Brahmaputra in protest at the pollution of the river and the Union Government’s silence on the issue. The pollution of the river is of serious concern both from an environmental as well as an economic perspective. The river forms the backbone of communities in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Bangladesh who depend on the river water for drinking, animal husbandry and irrigation as well as on the river for fishing.

The cause for the pollution is not known, the Chinese have denied any involvement, yet at the same time there is a lot of road and dam construction in Arunachal Pradesh. Some of the road projects are very close to the river. On December 4, Union Minister of State in Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Parliamentary Affairs, Arjun Ram Meghwal, stated that according to preliminary findings the cause for the pollution could be natural due to a blockage caused by an earthquake on the Chinese side of the border.

What complicates matters is that neither India nor China are parties to the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, 1997. The Convention specifically states that parties to the Convention have an obligation to share information on use of river waters, including hydro projects and any water diversion. India and China do not have a water sharing treaty on the Brahmaputra either. Therefore, if the results from the laboratory tests point towards pollution due to construction, there is a high likelihood of politicization of the issue on both sides of the border.