Indus Water Sharing

Indus water sharing: issues and concerns

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There are many unreasonable provisions in the Indus Waters Treaty


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INDIA'S HYDRO projects in Jammu and Kashmir are under threat. Citing gross violations of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) Pakistan is taking every opportunity to attack these projects to build up international opinion against India. Interestingly, the same treaty is depriving India of its legitimate share of Indus waters needed to meet the increasing demands of the co-basin States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Our neighbour has already been able to stall the construction of the Wular Barrage project in Jammu and Kashmir. It has been successful in getting the World Bank's approval for appointing a neutral expert and thereby delaying our Baglihar project under construction. Now it is mounting attacks on the Kishanganga project being implemented in the State misquoting the provisions in the IWT.
The development of water resources in the Indus basin is governed by the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960 by India and Pakistan as a sequel to the partition of the undivided India in 1947 and the consequent division of the Indus basin between the two countries resulting in a dispute on sharing of the water resources. As per the treaty, the six rivers contributing to the Indus system were equally divided whereby three eastern rivers, the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi were allotted to India and three western rivers, the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum to Pakistan.
Since then the treaty brokered by the World Bank is being extolled as a model for international agreements on equitable water sharing and optimum utilisation of the water resources of common rivers. An impression has also been created internationally that due to the inbuilt resilience, the treaty has survived many wars between the countries and is still working well.
An evaluation of the treaty provisions shows that equitable allocation of Indus waters was not intended by the vested interests and optimum utilisation was never the aim, as the underlying objective was only to perpetuate the dispute. The treaty outlived the tempests of history only because India was more accommodative to the demands of Pakistan.
Any analysis of the principles of water sharing of international rivers then followed would indicate that the sharing is never based on the number of rivers in a basin but on the quantum of water carried by them. Further, while dividing the rivers equally, the treaty considered only six rivers, dropping a seventh river, the Kabul river, from the treaty, so as to create a false impression of apparently equal share distribution.
The proposals were certainly biased in favour of Pakistan since India got only about 20 per cent of the Indus flows while Pakistan got 80 per cent, even though the quantum of water contributed to the Indus basin is predominantly from India. The factors creating legal and equity rights in water sharing as per international practices such as drainage areas, lengths of the arms or riverbeds of the rivers, dependent population, culturable areas, etc., on analysis, indicate that in this distribution, India should have got more than 40 per cent of the total waters of the Indus basin.
Accommodating spirit
There are many such unreasonable provisions in the treaty to which India had agreed in the interest of peaceful neighbourly relations and early settlement of disputes with Pakistan. But the accommodating spirit with which India had been approaching Pakistan to utilise our share of Indus waters as per treaty provisions has been considered a weakness by Pakistan emboldening it to make more demands to delay our projects.
Thus, even after four decades of the signing of the treaty, India has been able to develop only less than 15 per cent of the hydropower potential till now due to Pakistan's objections to our projects. Using the ambiguity in the treaty clauses and ignoring sound engineering practices, our neighbour is using it as a handle to scuttle India's projects in the J&K part of the Indus basin.
In view of these developments, time has come for a fresh thinking on the Indus Waters Treaty to take into account the apparent inequity in water allocation, the ambiguity in its clauses, etc. Though there is no exit option in the treaty, there is an option for review. Hence India should now take the lead to initiate discussions with the World Bank for a review of the treaty. In the meantime as there is no provision in the treaty to stop construction of the projects pending resolution of Pakistan's objections, immediate action is needed to implement them.

(The Hindu. dated 19th June,2005)