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INDIA/PAKISTAN: Indus
Water Treaty Agitates Kashmiris
By Athar Parvaiz
SRINAGAR, Oct 15 (IPS) - As Pakistan and
India wrangle over the waters of the Chenab, Kashmiris - through
whose homeland the river and four other tributaries of the mighty
Indus flow - have reason to be agitated.
Soon after Indian Prime Minister inaugurated
the 450 Mw Baglihar hydro-electric dam project across the Chenab,
during a visit to Jammu & Kashmir state last week, Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari warned that disrupting the flow of the
river could reverse recent improvements in ties between the two
neighbours.
"Pakistan would be paying a very high price for
India's move to block Pakistan's water supply from the Chenab
River," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Zardari as
saying on Sunday.
Zardari made reference to the World
Bank-mediated 1960 Indus Water Treaty which allows the two countries
share the Indus river and its five tributaries - the Jhelum, Chenab,
Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - and provides mechanisms for dispute
settlement.
Under the treaty, Pakistan received exclusive
use of waters from the Indus and its westward flowing tributaries,
the Jhelum and Chenab, while the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers were
allocated for India's use.
India, which has a right to
‘’run-of-the-river’’ projects has rejected Pakistan's contention
that the Baglihar dam reduces the flow of water and says the project
is crucial for power-starved Kashmir.
In 2005 Pakistan had sought the World Bank's
intervention to stop construction of the Baglihar dam and the
hydroelectricity power project, but Bank-appointed experts cleared
the project while asking India to restrict the overall height of the
dam.
Earlier India had to stop construction of
Tulbul Navigation Project on the River Jhelum on account of
objections raised by Pakistan. While India maintained that the
project was designed to improve navigation, especially during the
winter when the water level recedes, Pakistan said that the Wullar
Barrage [as Islamabad calls the project] is a storage project which
will affect the flow of water. Work on the project has remained
stalled for 20 years.
Under the treaty, Pakistan is to receive 55,000
cusecs of water, but authorities there complain that this year
Pakistan's share was drastically reduced, causing damage to crops.
"Pakistan received between 13,000 cusecs during the winter and a
maximum of 29,000 cusecs during summer. This averages around 22,000
to 25,000 cusecs - less than half of Pakistan's share,’’ newspapers
in Pakistan, citing authorities, say.
India and Pakistan may be talking to each other
to settle their disputes over the Indus water, but the people in
Indian Kashmir say that the two countries are actually reaping the
benefits of what are their resources. Thanks to the Indus Water
Treaty, only 40 percent of the cultivatable land in the state can be
irrigated and 10 percent of the hydroelectric potential harnessed.
"Who represented Kashmir then [1960] at the
table? What was the ‘locus standi’ of the two countries to abuse
waters of a region that had independent identity till 1947, and on
which they disputed each other's claim afterwards?" asks human
rights activist, Shayik Nazir.
"The
issue that remains at the center of Indus water treaty is that the
treaty was signed at a time when Jammu & Kashmir was passing through
a phase of both economic and political innocence. There was a
political leadership in the state which was working in what one can
say as national interest [of India] at that point of time", says
political analyst Gul Mohammad Wani.
"The popular political leadership; the
legitimate political leadership [in Jammu & Kashmir] was out of the
political scene. We had a government which had absolutely no
legitimacy and no credibility in the estimation of the people of the
state and it was during those times the treaty was signed."
Srinagar-based economic expert Arjimand Hussain
Talib says that the treaty drastically limits the economic benefits
to Kashmir. "And then the power houses which are being built on
these are generally owned by the Indian government without taking
into consideration the fact that they basically flow through Jammu
and Kashmir", Arjimand told IPS.
"They don't share the profits and the resources
which are generated through these (rivers) with the Jammu & Kashmir
state except for the 12 percent royalty on power that it gets,’’ he
added.
Shakeel Qalandhar, president of the Kashmir
Industries and Commerce Federation, says that Kashmir's economy
would have greatly progressed, but for the 1960 treaty. "Through
these three main rivers, we could have generated hydroelectric power
not less than 30,000 Mw, but we are generating just over 300 Mw in
the state sector and 1,600 Mw in the central sector. In all it is
less than 2,000 Mw whereas we require 2,500 Mw of electricity for
our own consumption - domestic and industrial.’’
According to Qalandar, every year Jammu &
Kashmir purchases power [from the National Hydroelectric Power
Corporation] worth billions of dollars. "It is a tragedy that
despite having the potential of generating 30,000 Mw of power, 25
percent of our population is without electricity and 55 percent is
without safe drinking, despite huge water resources in the state."
Over the last few years, the state government
of Jammu & Kashmir and industrial groups in the state have been
demanding compensation from the central government for the losses
incurred by the state because of the Indus Water Treaty.
Motions were moved in the state assembly on
three different occasions by the legislators asking the federal
government to review the treaty and pay compensation to the state.
"Our state is suffering due to the wrong decision of the then
leaders and we are losing billions of dollars annually", contended
legislator, Depinder Kour, while moving a resolution in the assembly
a few years ago.
"Ours is a land-locked state. We don't have
industries and other economic resources except the water. But
because of the treaty, India and Pakistan benefit while Jammu &
Kashmir suffers huge economic losses. That is why we are seeking
compensation,'' says Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, state secretary of
the Communist Party of India (CPI).
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