Pakistani and Indian officials met for the second time in two months in Washington to find ways to resolve their long-running disputes relating to water distribution between the two neighbouring countries.
The two days of talks, brokered by the World Bank, focused on Pakistan’s objections on Ratle (850MW) and Kishanganga (330MW) hydroelectric projects of India on Chenab and Jhelum which Islamabad says are designed in violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
The World Bank, after the talks, said the meetings were part of a process to safeguard benefits of the 57-year-old Indus Waters Treaty.
Pakistan maintains it was given unrestricted use of Jhelum and Chenab – the two Western rivers in the Indus system while India was allowed unrestricted use of the three Eastern rivers of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas.
The officials from the two countries had met last month in Washington and exchanged proposals to address each others’ concerns.
The World Bank hailed the two sides for their “spirit of goodwill and cooperation” in August talks.
There is no report of any immediate breakthrough in the recent talks as they involve very complex issues.
Elena Karaban told media that “these meetings are a continuation of a discussion on how to safeguard the treaty for the benefit of the people in both countries.”
However, a section of Indian media maintains that the talks themselves were sign of a “softening” of the tough stance of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards Pakistan.
Bimal Patel, one of the five members of India’s National Security Advisory Board, criticised Modi government for consenting to attend World Bank-sponsored talks. He said it was “uncalled for”, for it would perpetuate “third party role” in addressing the disputes between the two countries, which New Delhi has traditionally opposed.
“I don’t know why we are going to the World Bank. We should not go to the World Bank. I fail to understand why they (the government) are doing this, inviting the World Bank to play a role which should not be there,” the Indian media quoted him as saying.
The Modi government has virtually broken off bilateral talks after levelling unsubstantiated allegations that the attacks in Pathankot in the Indian Punjab and Uri in the Indian held Kashmir were orchestrated by Pakistan-based militants.
During the stalemate, the extremist Hindu government raised the possibility of using water as a weapon of war which drew strong reaction from Pakistan.
Islamabad in clear terms told the international community that any such attempt by India would be taken as a declaration of war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought three wars since their independence from British colonial rule seventy years ago.
Pakistan has expressed growing concerns over Indian belligerence on water issue in recent years.
Those apprehensions were highlighted by the army chief general Qamar Bajwa in his speech on the Defence Day on September 6.
“India’s naked injustice in Kashmir and its role in breaking up Pakistan are known to everyone,” he told a big gathering of families of martyrs as well as government and military officials in Rawalpindi.
“Now these efforts have been expanded to include open support for terrorism and a desire to seize Pakistani waters.”
Protecting its waters from aggression is all the more important for Pakistan because a deviation from the Indus Waters Treaty could affect Punjab, the province with over 110 million people accounting for almost half of Pakistan’s population.
Punjab is also the country’s breadbasket as it produces almost 60 percent of the country’s total agricultural output.
Moreover, Pakistan has already been declared a water-stressed nation with some reports from international agencies warning that water scarcity constitutes a bigger threat than terrorism to the country. Some experts even drew a doomsday scenario by suggesting that the country could dry up by 2025.
However, it is regrettable that discussion on this vital issue is almost absent in our national discourse.
One can hardly find any informed discussion in our prime-time talk shows as well as in our newspapers on this topic.
Even on water issues with India, instead of having an informed debate on how to tackle this issue and what are the challenges for the country, the discussions are often restricted to bombastic statements based on nationalistic verbose.
Ironically, it is not just general public that is unmindful of this important issue but it seems that key government figures too have no realisation of the seriousness of the water situation and upcoming challenges for Pakistan in this regard.
It is time for Pakistan to discuss whether the Indus Waters Treaty needs to be reviewed or discarded and what options are available to address this critical issue with India.
Earlier this year, the United Nations Development Program noted that the major reason behind the lingering dispute with India over water-related matters is Pakistan’s negligence to carry out a sound analysis of trans-boundary water issues as well as delays by Islamabad to effectively raise the issues with India at the Indus Water Commission as well as with the World Bank when they could not be resolved bilaterally.
The Indus Waters Treaty has been touted as the most successful accord between any two estranged neighbours in the world over water issue, as it has survived wars and conflicts between the two countries since the treaty was signed in 1960.
However, a report by the United Nations development network released earlier this year observed that the survival of the treaty looks weak in view of the increasing water stress in the Indus basin since early 90s.
More importantly, Pakistan’s water challenges are not just confined to issues related to India alone, but because of climate change, melting glaciers and evolving precipitation patterns it has become all the more important for Pakistan to try to address water related issues more seriously.
The previous floods, particularly in 2010, not only wrecked havoc in the country but a large amount of water was wasted because of absence of big reservoirs.
The situation urgently called for policy making to avoid such disasters in future, but no proper attention was given to this issue.
The Kalabagh Dam has been turned into a highly politicised issue and no serious effort has been launched by successive governments either to evolve a consensus or to explore tangible alternatives to this project.
Challenges for Pakistan on water front are deepening and becoming serious with the passage of time.
Pakistan needs to prepare a holistic water policy that covers all aspects of water security, failing which the country could face a formidable challenge in the coming years which would surpass all other challenges.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad
