Will adopt 'responsible' attitude on cross-border river issues: China

BEIJING: A day after India sought details from Beijing on its plans to divert waters of the Brahmaputra by building a dam on it in Tibet, China today said it will adopt a "responsible" attitude taking into "full consideration" the interest of downstream countries.

"China adopts a responsible attitude towards the development of cross border water resources," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei told a media briefing here.

He was answering a question on concerns in India over Beijing's plans to build a dam on Brahmaputra resulting in diversion of waters.

"We adopt a policy that protection goes together with development, and take into full consideration the interests of downstream countries," he said.

While China has been directly assuring India for over an year that it would build run of the river dam on Brahmaputra, reports that a series of such dams could result in water erosion again raised concerns in India as some of the Chinese experts have been suggesting a number of dams which could generate a high degree of power.

In March, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu said China proposed to build a dam on Brahmaputra but not a "very big one" to cause concern for neighbouring countries India and Bangladesh, which avail the waters.

"At present, the hydro power station on the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river is not a very big one and will not lead to any big change in the downstream water levels or affect the harnessing efforts by the downstream countries," she said.