China, which has not shared hydrological data on the Brahmaputra river with India since May 15, has continued to share this information with Bangladesh through this period, the BBC reported on Monday.
“We received data of water level of the Brahmaputra from China a few days ago,” Mofazzal Hossain, a member of the joint rivers commission of Bangladesh, was quoted as saying. “We have been receiving such data from three hydrological stations in Tibet since 2002, and they have continued to share the figure with us even during this monsoon season.”
Bangladesh’s Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mohammad also confirmed that Dhaka had been receiving hydrological data from China. This information pertains to the movement, distribution and quality of water. The alerts about water levels help warn downstream countries in case of floods.
On September 12, China had said that it could not share the figures as its data collection station in Tibet was being upgraded. “To upgrade and renovate the relevant station in the Chinese side, we do not have the conditions to collect the statistics of the river,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang had said.
On August 18, Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson for the Indian External Affairs Ministry, had said that the hydrological data, which is usually shared every year between May 15 and October 15, was last received in June 2016.
India had said that if China had shared the data, it would have been better equipped to deal with the floods in Assam and Bihar, and that this violated a pact signed in 2013. Kumar had also said that it was probably because of a technical reason and not necessarily because of the standoff in Doklam, which had gone on for nearly two months.
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