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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the ministries of external affairs and water resources to find out why the water of Brahmaputra turned black and take remedial measures for it.
This was conveyed at a high-level meeting chaired by the prime minister and attended by Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitely, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal besides others on Tuesday, a statement issued by the Assam government said.
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 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 IIT, Guwahati.
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 construction of a 1000-km tunnel by China to divert waters of the Brahmaputra which originates in Tibet.
Brahmaputra originates in Tibet where it is called Yarlung Tsangpo and is known as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh before it enters Assam and flows southwards to the sea through Bangladesh.
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.
China has denied plans to construct a tunnel to divert Brahmaputra river waters amid reports of highly polluted waters from its tributary Siang flowing into India.
"I would like to point out that China's position on the eastern part of the China-India border is consistent and clear," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in response to questions about the reports on blackened, muddy waters with cement and sledge of the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh.
He refuted reports that it may due to a tunnel being constructed on Chinese side.
"I have never heard of the project mentioned by the Indian side. It is hoped that the Indian side will not conduct unfounded speculation and reports," he said in a written response to a question in this regard.
In October, China had denied reports of plans to build 1000-km long tunnel to divert Brahmaputra waters to the arid regions of Xinjiang, saying the report is untrue and false.
There is, however, no explanation for the highly-polluted waters in Siang river.
In 2016, China had declared that it would be building a dam on a tributary of the river, sparking concerns of its potential downstream impact in India.
-- K J M Varma/PTI