Muhammad Ali
Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is an international treaty signed in 1960 by President Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with the mediation of World Bank. Itis considered as a success story of water diplomacy.This treaty remained successful for quite many years, but India’s hostile and aggressive notions always tried to defame Pakistan at regional and international level.India has become an irresponsible and rogue state under Prime Minister NarendraModigovernment. PM Modi made an aggressive statement in which he pointed out to stop the water tributaries flowing to Pakistan which escalated the tensions between India and Pakistan. He stated that, “Water that belongs to India cannot be allowed to go to Pakistan.Foreign Secretary Sartaj Aziz said in response of Modi’s statement that IWT is multilateral treaty and it cannot be revokedunilaterally.India had practically declined obligatory annual meetings regarding water issue since May 2015. Recently, a10-member Indian delegation led by Indian Indus Water Commissioner, P K Saxena arrived in Pakistan through Wagah on 19th March 2017 to attend the two-day talks on the water issue. It was believed that persistence of determined talks with sincere efforts from both sides would lead to resolution of the matters at the Permanent Indus Commission level in accordance with the provisions of the IWT, which was a symbol of diplomatic management of trans-boundary resources.The113th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission between Pakistan and India was held in Islamabadduring the last week of March. The agenda of the talks included the discussions on the design aspects of PakalDul, Lower Kalnai and Miyar hydroelectric plants, flood data supply by India and programme of tours of inspection and meetings by Pakistan and India to the sites of their interest in the Indus basin.These projects are 1000 MW PakulDul on Chenab, 120 MW Miyar, located across MiyarNalla which is a right bank main tributary of River Chenab, and the 43 MW Lower Kalnai hydro project on Lower KalnaiNalla, a tributary of river Chenab.
Pakistan has been pursuing the matter of regular meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission with India to bring the other remaining issues under discussion. Pakistan had put forward a proposal of deploying a monitoring mechanism to assess the adverse affects of climate change on the water flows of Indus rivers system during the meeting. Currently, Pakistan ranks on 7th position out of 10 which is affected by climate change. Potential threats to Pakistan due to this changing climate and increasing temperature are; increased variability of monsoon, rapid recession of Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayan glaciers threatening water inflows into the Indus River System (IRS) that can increase the risk of floods and increase siltation of major dams that can result in greater loss of reservoir capacity..”As climate change would influence the flow of the rivers, so it cannot be excluded from the treaty framework,” said a senior official of Pakistan’s Indus Waters Commission.
Our water diplomacy is overly Indus Waters Treaty centric, and deserves an integrated view. While the IWT is a strategic asset that both India and Pakistan would strive to protect and constantly enrich, for Pakistan it is a lifeline that drives livelihoods for the poor and lifestyles for the rich. Pakistan gets about 127 million acre feet water under the Treaty.Almost 70 per cent of water in our rivers flows from the glaciers; groundwater is the source of over 60percent of water used in our agriculture; and almost all of our rainwater, particularly during the monsoon, is neither harvested nor stored or productively used. Having a water policy that ignores non-IWT sources of water is also dangerous for Pakistan’s food security and economy.Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asifalso said that Indus Water Treaty is one of world agreements, which provides cordial solution of serious water issues between Pakistan and India.Matters are expected to move in the positive direction as a result of meetings between Permanent Indus Commissioners of Pakistan and India.
Although the core issues like Kishanganga and Ratla hydropower projects were negated during those meeting by the aggressive hostile attitude of India. But with the intermediation of international powers like US and global financial institution World Bank two hostile states would be able to resolve the disputed issue of water between themselves in Washington this month. Moreover,it is an achievement for both the states especially Pakistan that India has agreed on redesigning of Miyar Hydroelectric project during two day meeting.However, it is not the end of the story between India and Pakistan.
We are already wasting our water reservoir capacity and not taking appropriate measures to address the lossesof water reservoirs available for the country.The theme for International Water Day was “Waste Water” which gives an alarming situation for the sustainable development for international community and especially for Pakistan. According to the World Bank (WB) reports, Pakistan would become water scarce country, due to its high population and lack of resources to utilize its water reservoirs. Pakistan should make an investment on water reservoirs and focus on small dams along with the major reservoirs for sustainable development, otherwise results would be disastrous for future generations.
