Brahmaputra turns black: MEA raises concern with Chinese Foreign Minister

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that the Centre has taken seriously the mysterious blackening of the Brahmaputra river and discussed it with the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials.

Addressing a press conference here, Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said, ''It is a matter of concern for us. We are coordinating with the Ministry of Water resources and we have ascertained certain facts.''

''The matter did come up during EAM Sushma Swaraj's meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister,'' he added.

Matter of concern for us. We are coordinating with the Ministry of Water resources and we have ascertained certain facts. The matter did come up during EAM's meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister: Raveesh Kumar,MEA on #Siangriver pic.twitter.com/mZ3bUAXpwC — ANI (@ANI) December 14, 2017

The clarification from the MEA spokesperson came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed the Water Resources Ministry to find out reasons why toxicity was rising in the Brahmaputra river and also asked it to take immediate remedial measures for it.

The matter was discussed during a high-level meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by Union Ministers including Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitely, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and others last evening.

A statement issued by the Assam government also later confirmed that the matter was discussed during the high-level meeting.

During the meeting, Modi assured Sonowal that the Centre had already taken up the issue of Brahmaputra turning black seriously and even engaged the Central Water Commission to look into it and directed the Ministry of Water Resources to take remedial steps on a war footing.

Considering the trans-national extent of the Brahmaputra, the Prime Minister also asked the External Affairs Ministry to take up the matter with the respective country to get into the root cause of the problem and find a positive solution.

Swaraj maintained that her ministry had already contacted China and a pragmatic and exhaustive study was being undertaken to find the real cause, the Assam government statement said.

The Prime Minister also asked the other ministries to work in synergy and directed the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure that scientific tests of Brahmaputra water are conducted to ascertain the physical and chemical composition of the river where it turned black.

Sonowal informed the Prime Minister that the state government had directed the director general of Assam Emergency and Fire Services to collect water samples from 15 places from Jonai to Dhubri along the Brahmaputra and sent them to the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and the IIT-Guwahati.

The water of the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh, which is called Brahmaputra in Assam, turned black from November-end. The water became muddy and cement-like apparently due to the construction of a 1000-km tunnel by China to divert waters of the Brahmaputra which originates in Tibet.

However, China has categorically rejected any wrongdoing on its part.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Attorney General KK Venugopal, Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajeev Jain besides others attended the meeting.