No flood threat now in Arunachal, says China on Tibet landslide

China on Monday said that the water levels have dropped and situation has returned to normal following an overflow at a barrier lake, which was formed due to a landslide that blocked a river in Tibet last week, threatening floods in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the authorities had already shared 110 statistics of river data with their Indian counterparts and were closely monitoring the situation.

"As to the barrier lake created by the landslide in the River Yarlung Tsangpo, China and India have maintained close communication," said Ministry's spokesperson Hua Chunying.

The Indian authorities sounded a high alert in Arunachal Pradesh last week after a landslide occurred in Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet that enters as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and is known as the Brahmaputra in Assam.

"By 12 O'clock of October 20, the river section in the barrier lake returned to normal and we will closely monitor the landslide situation, maintain close communication and cooperation with Indian side through existing channels," Hua said.

China and India this year renewed a water data-sharing pact under which Beijing will provide Delhi with the statistics of the river during flood seasons.

"After this (landslide) happened, Chinese Hydrological Department informed the Indian side immediately and launched the information reporting mechanism.

"We have provided the hydrological data from October 17 and up to October 22 we have provided seven pieces of hydrological information and 110 pieces of statistics. We also reported to the Indian side of the flow of the barrier lake," Hua said.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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