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India not behind water shortage
KARACHI The Indian high commissioner has rejected Pakistan's allegations that India was responsible for the current water shortage faced by Pakistan and urged the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) to play a more effective role to resolve the issue.Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal made the remarks during a function organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations and the Pakistan-India Citizenship Forum on Saturday. It is wrong to blame India for the current water shortage in Pakistan. In fact India too suffered serious droughts in the year 2009 and the rainfall during the monsoon season was 20 per cent less than the normal,' he emphasised. Sabharwal also rejected Pakistan's allegations that construction of dams and other structures by India on rivers in the Indian-administered Kahsmir was depriving Pakistan of its share of water. The water flows would have showed a progressive decline and that so far has not been the case,' he remarked. The Indian ambassador also stated that India had no storage and diversion canals network' to stop Pakistan's water share, and all claims in this regard were just baseless allegations. Of late, it has been alleged in Pakistan that India is responsible for its water shortage. These claims have nothing to do with reality. On the contrary India provided Pakistan its share of water during the wars of 1965 and 1971,' he claimed. Currently, Pakistan and India are at odds over water distribution, with Pakistan accusing its neighbour of stopping the flow of water by constructing dams. Fears of a possible confrontation between the two countries over the water issue have been expressed by many government functionaries in Islamabad who also demanded its resolution at the earliest. Sabharwal stressed the best option to resolve the water issue was the Indus Water Treaty which should be utilised more effectively, besides the PIC under which the two countries had met for 100 times. Posted by: Steve White 2010-04-05 |
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