India takes up Himalayan river cooperation with China

From K J M Varma
Beijing, Sept 26 (PTI) India Monday asked China to build
further on the cooperation of sharing data on Brahmaputra and
Sutluj rivers, which originate in Tibet and are major sources
of irrigation downstream.
Praising the giant strides made by China in its economic
development, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission,
Montek Singh Ahluwalia briefly touched upon India's interest
in increasing cooperation over inter state-rivers originating
from Tibet. Ahluwalia is attending the first Strategic
Economic Dialogue (SED) here.
"I take this opportunity to also record our appreciation
for the hydrological data that the Chinese Government provides
us on the Brahmaputra and Satluj rivers during flood season",
he said.
"It would be very good to build further on this tradition
of cooperation. This should be a subject that unites us rather
than divides us," he said.
Water issues constituted a major topic for discussions in
one of the three sub-groups formed for discussion in today's
Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).
But Indian officials said the discussions mainly centred
on pricing system of water in urban and rural areas,
technology issues relating to water supply systems in cities,
water saving technologies and irrigation.
The discussion on water issues was piloted by Dhruv
Vijay Singh, Secretary Ministry of Water Resources.