China resumed sharing water flow data of the Brahmaputra with India earlier this week, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday. The river flows through China, India and Bangladesh before draining into the Bay of Bengal. The data is crucial for predicting floods in North East India.
In March, a team of officials from the Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts about cooperation on trans-border rivers. A month later, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said that China had once again agreed to share hydrological data of the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej rivers. China stopped providing India with the data soon after bilateral relations became strained because of the 74-day military standoff at Doklam near Sikkim. The standoff ended in August.
A memorandum of understanding between the two countries mandates Beijing to provide hydrological data to India every year between May 15 and October 15.
“China has started sharing the data on Brahmaputra and will be sharing data on Sutlej from June,’’ TS Mehta, commissioner, Brahmaputra told the Hindustan Times. The data on Sutlej will be shared from June, the report added.
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