2 weeks Ago By KO Web Desk
Representational PhotoSrinagar- In the aftermath of the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives, India has suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, a move that marks a dramatic escalation in bilateral tensions. The treaty, signed in 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, has long governed the distribution and usage of the Indus basin’s five rivers. Its suspension brings to the fore old grievances, not just between India and Pakistan, but also from within Jammu and Kashmir, the region most affected by the treaty’s provisions.
What is the Indus Waters Treaty?Signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank. It governs the use of the waters of the six rivers of the Indus basin. India controls the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) and Pakistan controls the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab), with India allowed “limited use” of the western rivers (for hydropower, agriculture, etc.
).Friction over Kashmir watersThe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has progressively adopted a more assertive stance on water-sharing with Pakistan. In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went as far as stating that India would prevent “every drop” of water from the eastern rivers from reaching Pakistan.
“For the last 70 years, the waters that belonged to India and farmers of Haryana were going to Pakistan. Modi will stop it and bring it to your households,” Modi is reported to have said in Charkhi Dadri in Haryana.“This water belongs to farmers of Haryana, Rajasthan and the country and we will get it.
. Work towards realisation of this has been started and I am committed towards it. Modi will fight your battle,” he added.
In January 2023, India sent a notice to Pakistan demanding modification of the Indus Waters Treaty which hasn’t been spelled out in concrete detail. Indian government officials have mostly sought “renegotiation” or “scrapping” of the treaty. In February 2023, India stopped the flow of Ravi river water to Pakistan following the completion of the Rs 3300 crore Shahpur Kandi Barragewhich had witnessed delays over the past three decades.
The differences are nowhere closer to resolution. But much of this strain has been political posturing as there is nothing in the treaty that allows either country to either demand renegotiation of the treaty or withdraw from it entirely. And now the suspension of the treaty has brought the matters to a head.
Ironically, the current tensions were presaged in the former Pakistan’s former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s study at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1990 in which he concluded that “germs of a future conflict” between India and Pakistan lay in the distribution of the Indus basin rivers. J&K grouse against the IWTPeople in J&K have been complaining that the treaty was signed without involving Jammu and Kashmir, even though the rivers originate here. The narrative also goes that the treaty leads to economic losses that amount to billions of rupees annually.
Since terminating the treaty isn’t legally feasible, J&K leaders demand that New Delhi quantify and compensate for the state’s losses under the treaty.In short, Kashmiris see the Indus Waters Treaty as a historic injustice that robs them of control over their most valuable resource – water – and stifles their economic growth and energy independence.Despite being the source of these rivers, Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as the biggest loser under the treaty.
The region is struggling to meet its own irrigation and energy needs. Experts estimate that only 40% of Kashmir’s cultivable land is currently irrigated. Ironically, despite being rich in water resources, Kashmir remains a power-starved state.
Pak delegation’s visit last yearLast year, a five-member Pakistani delegation was flown to Jammu’s Kishtwar to inspect power projects set up on the rivers covered under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). It was the first such visit since Jammu & Kashmir’s special status was revoked in 2019.The delegates from India, Pakistan and neutral experts from the World Bank visited the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) headquarters in Kishtwar.
The 850 megawatts (MW) Ratle hydroelectric power project site at Drabshalla and the 1,000 MW Pakal Dul project on river Marusudar were inspected. Both these projects are over a tributary of the Chenab river..
