Indus water diverted from Pakistan flows into Haryana, Punjab. What’s Pak reaction?

Indus water diverted from Pakistan flows into Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab

• Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar stated on Friday that the water saved due to the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan will be supplied to Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan within the next one to one and a half years.
• "The large quantity of water that was discharged towards Pakistan will now be brought and supplied to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan in the coming one or one and a half years," stated Khattar while addressing a programme to launch the drainage master plan of the national capital.
• India’s decision to suspend the decades-old Indus Water Treaty comes after the killing of 26 people who were mostly tourists, in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

What was the Indus Water Treaty?

• The Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the use of the Indus River and its tributaries – Beas, Sutlej, Ravi, Jhelum, and Chenab – between India and Pakistan since 1960.
• Under the treaty, India was awarded exclusive rights to the water of Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi – amounting to an average annual flow of nearly 33 million acre-feet (MAF).
• The water of the western rivers – the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab – amounting to an average annual flow of around 135 MAF, which was largely provided to Pakistan, has now been suspended and is only available to be used by India.

Pakistan urges India to resume normal functioning of Indus Water Treaty

• A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on 22nd April, as Pahalgam terror attack response India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan including suspending the Indus Waters Treaty 1960.
• According to reports, Pakistan on Monday stated that they are committed to the full implementation of the Indus Water Treaty and requested India to immediately resume the normal functioning of the treaty, which New Delhi has suspended since May.
• Pakistan welcomed the interpretation linked to the Indus Water Treaty made by the Court of Arbitration on 8th August.

India to launch hydropower projects on the Western rivers

• India has never agreed to the proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration after Pakistan objected to certain design elements of the two projects under the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty.
• The Foreign Office stated that the Award interprets the designed criteria for the new run-of-river hydropower projects, to be constructed by India on the Western rivers (Chenab, Jhelum, and Indus).
• “In a significant finding, the Court has declared that India shall ‘let flow’ the waters of the Western Rivers for Pakistan’s unrestricted use. In that connection, the specified exceptions for generation of hydro-electric plants must conform strictly to the requirements laid down in the Treaty, rather than to what India might consider an ‘ideal’ or ‘best practices’ approach,” the Foreign Office quoted the Award as stating.
• The Foreign Office stated that the Award carries special significance in the wake of India deciding to suspend the water from Indus Water Treaty and its earlier decision to boycott the proceedings of the Court of Arbitration.

Editor’s Note

• With India suspending the water of the Indus Water Treaty to Pakistan, Pakistan requested India to regularize normal functioning of the water of the Indus Water Treaty. It will be interesting to see how things unfold as India is adamant on not sharing any water with Pakistan.
• #induswaterstreaty1960 #pahalgamterrorattackresponse #indusriverwaterindia