Pakistan’s blame game to seek concessions from India on Indus Water Treaty 

Pakistan is indulging in a blame game policy to seek concessions from India on Indus Water Treaty while continuing to indulge in poor water management at home.

While attending the recently concluded ‘UN 2023 Water Conference’, Hasan Nisar Jamy, Pakistan’s Water Resources Ministry Secretary stated, “Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which governs sharing of the Indus basin’s waters, is one example of such successful cooperation, which provides an effective mechanism for cooperation and management on water issues.” Islamabad is seeking it to be a model for all future trans-border water agreements.

The observers in the UN Conference pointed out that the Indus Water Treaty itself speaks of its effectiveness in water sharing management between the two neighbors as even after six decades both countries still adhere to the treaty.

But at the same conference Pakistan blamed India for its water shortages citing various agreements, ET has learned. The Pakistani intention is to malign the Indian image and stall water development projects in upper riparian water resources of the Indus Basin Irrigation System, which are legally agreed upon and shared under the IWT, sources said. But Pakistan has always described the treaty as unfair despite obtaining a good share of water.

The IWT treaty permits India to construct hydroelectric power projects by intimating Pakistan about the design of the dam and Pakistan. Pakistan could make objections only on technical grounds like the size of spillways, bond for bonds fort outlets, and placement of power intakes. The IWT provides a mechanism to address these technical issues which it could be done only through neutral expert arbitration.

The flexibility in the IWT has been provided considering the advancement in technology of dam construction, which not only facilitates more conservation but also its judicious utilization. Since the signing of the IWT in 1960, there have been significant changes in the technical aspects of dam construction, water preservation, storage, and management.

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In the case, he the Baglihar dam, neutral experts ruledfavorvour of India arguing that the new technology, even if with the treaty, would prolong the life of the project and was in everyone’s interest. Pakistan intends to delay the Indian projects, hoping for a greater share in unutilizedized Indian water share and causing irritants for India through future possible confrontations and lobbying, sources alleged.

Pakistan is among the top 10 water-scarce countries in the world. On many occasions, global experts have sounded the alarm and expressed that by 2050 the Himalayan glaciers will be melted and if Pakistan does not take the right steps, there will be severe floods during the rainy season.

Pakistan will have to suffer a loss of USD 30 to 40 billion every second or third year, if it fails to manage its water resources properly. Pakistan lacks a proper water management plan and financial resources. It is under pressure due to its rapidly increasing population which has risen by six to seven times since Independence, Pak watchers pointed out.

One of the consequences of climate change has been a decrease in the overall flows in the Indus river system by about 5% from 1960 and is now expected to deplete rapidly. During the last rainy season, 40-million-acre feet of water was lost to the sea due to the lack of dams in Pakistan.

Islamabad would have stored 4-5,00,000 cusecs wof ater per day, by constructing Kalabagh Dam, controlling the volume of stormy rains in Sindh and Balochistan including Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, and through the Indus River, according to Pakistan watchers. According to these experts, the construction of the dam could have controlled the 2022 catastrophic flooding in Pakistan.

Shamsul Mulk (a Pakistani civil engineer and a Technocrat. Shamsul Mulk also served as the 24th Chief Mini ster of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province under the Military Government of Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf) had recently pointed out that Pakistan should have done complete planning to control all the flood waters it receives.