The Senate, where the plurality of seats still belong to the PPP, is not wrong is passing a resolution which calls for renegotiating the Indus Waters Treaty. The treaty was signed back in 1960, long before climate change had threatened the planet and before anyone knew the extent of mega dams that would be constructed. Ensuring a more equitable distribution of water between the two countries does require revisiting an archaic treaty. The problem with what the Senate proposes is just how unrealistic it is. India has absolutely no incentive to renegotiate a treaty that suits its needs perfectly. Under the terms of the treaty, India is allowed to divert waters – that are otherwise allocated to Pakistan – for its own hydroelectric needs. This India has done with great gusto by building a series of dams, leaving Pakistan with insufficient water. India is not going to unilaterally stop building these dams, and international arbitration has not been on our side either. Pakistan went to the International Court of Arbitration last year when India constructed the Kishanganga Dam but the court ruled against us because we were unable to show that the water India was using would have been stored by us in our own dams.
While India is no doubt to blame for taking advantage of the letter of the Indus Water Treaty while violating its spirit, the reason we are facing water shortages today is also largely our own fault. Long before India started constructing its dams, Pakistan had the opportunity to build dams of its own and thus stake its claim to the water. These projects were mired in politics, bureaucratic red tape, poor planning and a lack of funds. The Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, for instance, was conceived way back in 1989. It took till 2014 for Pakistan to secure funding for the project in the form of a $448 million loan from China’s Import-Export Bank. Last month, Wapda said it hoped one of the three units of the dam would be operational by the middle of next year, nearly 20 years after the project was initiated. In that time, India has already constructed dams to divert water from the Jhelum River that would have come to us had we been efficient enough. This will make it difficult to amend the Indus Waters Treaty with India but no more difficult than other vexing issues we have with India. Instead of admitting defeat before it has even started, the government needs to treat water as an issue on par with our other issues with India.