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| India-Pakistan | |
| Water dispute fuels Indo-Pak tensions | |
| 2010-05-01 | |
| Everything fuels Indo-Pak tensions ... GUJRAT: A bitter dispute over limited water resources is fuelling India-Pakistan tensions at a time when the neighbours are trying to rebuild trust and resume peace talks.
The issue was raised on Thursday when the leaders of the two countries met at a regional summit in Bhutan and agreed on the need to normalise relations, the Pakistani side said. Further complicating the situation, extremists are trying to capitalise on allegations that India is stealing water from glacier-fed rivers that start in Kashmir. Independent experts say there is no evidence to support those charges, but they warn that Pakistan's concerns about India's plans to build at least 15 new dams need to be addressed to avoid conflict. "If you want to give Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and other Pakistani terrorists an issue that really rallies people, give them water," said John Briscoe, who has worked on water issues in the two countries for 35 years and was the World Bank's senior water adviser. Farmers in the country's central breadbasket are certainly angry. "India has blocked our water because they are our enemy," said Mohammad, a 65-year-old farmer in Gujrat. Indian officials blame any reduction on natural variation and climate change, which have hurt India as well. They add that Pakistan's antiquated irrigation system wastes large quantities of water. "Preposterous and completely unwarranted allegations of stealing water and waging a water war are being made against India," Indian Ambassador to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal said in a speech in April. "The issues of Kashmir and terrorism are going to be much more difficult if we don't have an agreement on water," Briscoe said. Indus water commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah does not accuse India of stealing water, but he says India is not providing information required under the 1960 pact to prove that it is not. India denies any intention to cut off water to Pakistan and maintains that it has complied with the treaty. But as with other issues between the two countries, mistrust runs high. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 the Zangmu hydroelectric project on the Yarlung River Zangbo. The project itself is a source of tensions with India, which is concerned that the damming the river, known as the Brahmaputra in India, could harm downstream flows in one of Asia's most economically vital waterways. The Zangmu Dam is the first of five planned for the 100-kilometre Jiacha Canyon (pictured), which is southeast of TibetÂ’s capital of Lhasa. However, geologists have said that the area is prone to earthquakes. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-05-01 21:31 |
| #6 I love Rantburg U. Thanks, John. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-05-01 19:49 |
| #5 Water that would otherwise flow into India The drainage basins for those rivers lie mostly in India. They also flow to Bangladesh. So while water flow would be cut slightly, guess who loses in the end? |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-05-01 12:30 |
| #4 Also, under the IWT, Pakistan gets 4 times the water that India does, even though Pakistan has a much smaller population. Pakistan may regret bringing up the water issue. If India renegotiates the treaty, Pakistan will find them far less generous today than Nehru was in the 60s. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-05-01 12:29 |
| #3 Under the IWT, India gave all the water from 3 rivers to Pakistan. No other upper riparian state has done that. The IWT is not just a treaty between India and Pakistan. It was negotiated by Robert McNamara and the World Bank is a signatory and guarantor of the treaty. Neutral experts and arbitration courts can be invoked. None have ruled for Pakistan. Pakistan is trying to prevent India from exercising its rights under the treaty (by building power projects) because Pakistan itself cannot afford to build power projects. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-05-01 12:27 |
| #2 Must be a pleasant change from fighting over religion and whether India has besmirched whatever part of the Pakistani national honor that wasn't already pre-smirched. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-05-01 11:46 |
| #1 Wait till China channels water to Pakistan from the giant dams they are building on the Himalayan headwaters. Water that would otherwise flow into India. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-05-01 03:37 |