Pakistan Affairs| Short Notes

By CSP Rai Yasir Farhad and M. Ameer Hassan (FSP) | CSPs Academy, G-10

HYDRO POLITICS

India and Pakistan can go on shouting on Kashmir for all the time to come, but an early
settlement of the Indus waters is essential for the maintenance of peace in the sub-continent

Gulati
Introduction:

Growing scarcity of water resources and each state embedded in the phrase “sovereignty over
resources”.

Management and control of water resources became conflict between India and Pakistan

History of the issue

The Indus river system and its eastern tributaries: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers.

At the time of India’s partition in 1947 boundaries were drawn without first considering the
realities of the region

Kashmir is located in the Indus river basin area and all resources of water originate in the
occupied Kashmir

Water warfare

Like most of the conflicts on 1 April, 1948 Delhi stopped the flow of water from the canals on its
side denying the water to some 5.5percent of the sown area and almost 8 percent of the cultivated
area

Inter-dominion agreement was a bilateral accord comprising the release of sufficient water by
India on heavy payment from Pakistan

Situation led to a deadlock in 1951

World banks’ proposal of 1954 in form of concrete plan for the future

Indus water treaty 1960

© Copyrights 2019. Not to be copied, reprinted or plagiarized without permission of the author.
 Pakistan Affairs| Short Notes
By CSP Rai Yasir Farhad and M. Ameer Hassan (FSP) | CSPs Academy, G-10

The agreement was signed on September 19,1960 by Pakistan’s President Muhammad Ayub
khan and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the World Bank’s Mr.W.A.B Liff

Pakistan was given access to western rivers: the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab while the treaty gave
India exclusive use of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers

The treaty established a permanent Indus commission

Pakistan’s perspective

Ayub khan said about Pakistan’s perspective that:

“The sources of rivers are in India…and India had made arrangements to divert the waters
…every factor was against us, the only sensible thing to do was to try and get a settlement;
though it might be the second best, but if we did not we stood to lose everything.”

India’s perspective

India is busy in building dams on all rivers flowing into Pakistan from occupied Kashmir in
violation of Indus treaty. The stubborn attitude of India is making the situation very tough

Salal dam

India proposed to construct a dam over river Chenab in 1960; its capacity was 345 MW.

The only dam where India and Pakistan reached an understanding without the help of a third
party.

Wullar barrage

In 1984 India announced plans to build the barrage on the Jhelum River at the mouth of Wullar
Lake.

Pakistan’s concerns were that it will obstruct the flow of water to Pakistan and threaten the
irrigation and power projects and will affect the water level downstream. Pakistan believe that
India could use it as geo-strategic weapon

© Copyrights 2019. Not to be copied, reprinted or plagiarized without permission of the author.
 Pakistan Affairs| Short Notes
By CSP Rai Yasir Farhad and M. Ameer Hassan (FSP) | CSPs Academy, G-10

India was of the view that it was not an effort to divert water flowing into Pakistan. The project
is to make the river navigable during summer

Kishanganga Dam

The controversial of all the projects is kishanganga dam

Its capacity is 330 megawatt hydro-power plant

India is diverting the water of Neelum to Wullar Barrage and Neelum valley is likely to dry up

Experts believe that Pakistan’s water availability could be reduced from 154MAF to 140MAF

Baglihar dam (1990)

India violated the Indus water treaty by constructing Baghliar dam on Chenab River. This dam
is controversial because Pakistan claimed that dam will impede considerable water flow to
disrupt the agriculture and general water supplies for its people. The objections raised by
Pakistan are the following:

Dam’s storage capacity is so much

The height of dam, i.e. 4.5 meters is excessive to provide India with more ability to
accelerate, decelerate or block flow of river

It would dry some 5.6 million acres of land

Nimo bazgo hydro power project

The purpose of the construction of this dam is to meet the requirements of Indian army
deployed at Siachen glacier

It produces 219 megawatt of electricity. It has already started in clear violation of the
Indus water treaty

These dams are building up on the tributaries of the Indus River:

Dumkhar project

© Copyrights 2019. Not to be copied, reprinted or plagiarized without permission of the author.
 Pakistan Affairs| Short Notes
By CSP Rai Yasir Farhad and M. Ameer Hassan (FSP) | CSPs Academy, G-10

The Chutak project

Uri Todiam dam

Indian aqua bomb

According to study titled “mountains of concrete”,

Dam building in the Himalayas’ Pakistan is on the brink of water disaster and its availability has
been decreased to 1200 cubic meter per person from 5,000 cubic meters in 1947 and is predicted
to plunge to 800cubic meters by 2020.

India ranks third in the world of dam building after US and china

India played havoc with Pakistan’s agriculture and industry

India is planning to build 10 to 20 more dams on Chenab River to manipulate the water
flow

Conclusion

© Copyrights 2019. Not to be copied, reprinted or plagiarized without permission of the author.