Pak heats up water-sharing

In what is being seen as a larger attempt to erode the credibility of the 50-year-old Indus Water Treaty,a concerned India...

In what is being seen as a larger attempt to erode the credibility of the 50-year-old Indus Water Treaty,a concerned India is baffled by the allegations being levelled from Pakistan over water sharing between the two countries.

This sudden upping of the ante has its roots in surveys being conducted by India to explore possibility of small conservation storage projects on Chenab. However,India has not built any storage projects on the western rivers,Indus,Jhelum and Chenab,which account for an average water flow of 135 million acre feet this,despite,the fact that the treaty allows India to utilise 3.6 million acre feet for storage projects. Even for irrigation purposes,India has used waters to irrigate little under 0.8 million acre as against 1.3 million acre allowed.

Incidentally,India had provided 62 million to Pakistan under the treaty to compensate for construction of new canals in Pakistan after being allowed unrestricted use of water from eastern rivers. In contrast,of 33 million acre feet of unrestricted use of water from the eastern rivers,Ravi,Beas and Sutlej,India has not been able to harness the entire potential leaving 3 million acre feet water flowing into Pakistan. This fact is acknowledged by Pakistan.

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Nonetheless,recent statements on water sharing in Pakistan,including those by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, in the run-up to the Foreign Secretary level talks has taken New Delhi by surprise. Gilani is reported to have even raised the issue with US AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke.

Pakistans aggressiveness comes in the backdrop of the arbitration on the Baglihar project where the neutral expert appointed by the World Bank largely upheld the Indian case with minor changes in the dams height. After this reversal,Pakistan has been objecting to the construction of run-of-the-river power project on Kishanganga,a tributary of Jhelum in India. The Pakistani Indus Commission is understood to have issued a notice against the project. Incidentally,Pakistan has planned a Neelum-Jhelum power project with an estimated cost of $1.5 billion on the same tributary in PoK. The project has been awarded to a Chinese consortium,to which India is understood to have lodged a protest with both the countries.

India is taken aback with Pakistan making this a populist issue,bypassing the existing Permanent Indus Commission. So far,there have been 100 meetings and 112 tours by either side to inspect projects on Indus basin rivers. While the last meeting was held in February,India will host Pakistan Indus Commissioner in March.

There have been reports of restricted water flow to southern Punjab,Sindh and Balochistan. However,Pakistan has not been able to harness the 135 million acre feet of water flow in the western rivers. On an average,38 million acre feet water from these rivers flow to sea annually.