Vicious anti-India propaganda in Pakistan on Water issues
Pakistani politicians, officials and media are in the grip of a vicious anti-India propaganda on water issues. General Ashfaq Kayani has stated that India will remain the focus of Pakistani military doctrine so long as Pakistan has unresolved issues with India. He included water and Kashmir among the unresolved issues. In its recent strategic dialogue with the United States, Pakistan also sought to involve the US in the resolution of India-Pakistan water issue.
The debate in Pakistan on India-Pakistan water issues has heated up. Water is being projected as an existential issue. India is being blamed for the water crisis in Pakistan. The key points of the debate are that India is violating the Indus Water Treaty, and that it is stealing Pakistan’s waters and turning Pakistan into a desert. An interesting nuance in the debate is that the water issue is even more important than the Kashmir issue. The talk of “water war” with India that could expand into a nuclear war is quite common. The following is a sampling of some recent comments made in the Pakistani media:
- Dawn quoted the former Foreign Minister Sardar Asif Ali as saying that “if India continues to deny Pakistan its due share, it can lead to a war between the two countries.” (18 January 2010)
- In a similar vein, PML(Q) Chief Chaudhary Sujat Hussain said that the water crisis between Pakistan and India could become more serious than terrorism and can result in a war (Dawn, 18 January 2010).
- Majid Nizami, Chief Editor of Nawi Waqt group of newspapers, said that “Pakistan can become a desert within the next 10 to 15 years. We should show upright posture or otherwise prepare for a nuclear war.” (Dawn, 18 January 2010).
- Politicians are ratcheting up the rhetoric. Members of the Punjab Assembly passed a resolution to deny India trade transit facility until the resolution of the Kashmir dispute and issues related to water distribution (Dawn, 27 January 2010).
- Member of the Punjab Assembly Warris Khalo said that India would “remain an enemy” until the Kashmir dispute and water issues are resolved. (Dawn 27 January 2010).
- Palwasha Khan, Member of National Assembly, accused India of perpetrating “water terrorism” against Pakistan and said that “experts foresee war over the water issue in the future and any war in this region would be no less than a nuclear war.” (Daily Times17 February 2010).
- In a recent debate in Pakistan’s National Assembly, several members urged the government to impress on New Delhi “not to use” Pakistan’s share of water (Daily Times, 25 February 2010).
- Dr. Manzur Ejaz, a commentator, writing in Daily Times (3 March 2010) warned that “unless Pakistan was assured on the supply of water, it will never abandon the proxies that can keep India on its toes by destabilizing Kashmir.” He further added: “for Pakistan the territory of Kashmir may not be as important as the water issue.”
President Zardari has, in the past, raised the water issue several times. In an op-ed article inWashington Post (28 January 2009), he wrote that the water crisis in Pakistan was directly linked to relations with India and if this was not resolved, it could fuel extremism and terrorism. Zardari had also taken up the water issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2008 and complained that India’s diversion of water from the Chenab river was causing agricultural losses in several districts in Pakistan. Pakistan, according to media reports, has demanded compensation from India for the loss of agriculture due to diversion of waters.
The notable aspect about the Pakistani debate over water is that it is highly jingoistic and uninformed. The Indus Water Treaty of 1960 governs the sharing of waters between India and Pakistan. The Treaty, signed with the help of World Bank mediation, apportions the water between India and Pakistan. A significant feature of the Treaty was that it apportioned 80 per cent of the water of the Indus River Basin to Pakistan and only 20 per cent to India. This fact is never highlighted in the Pakistani discourse on the Indus Water Treaty. Pakistanis also conveniently ignore the fact that the Treaty gives India the right to construct run-of-the-river dams on the Western rivers (Indus, Chenab and Jhelum) as well as construction of 3.6 Million Acre Feet (MAF) of storage facilities. India has not yet constructed any storage dam on these rivers despite the fact that the Treaty permits it. This point is also overlooked in the Pakistani media. Nor has India used the full potential of irrigation from the Western Rivers as permitted under the Treaty.
The Pakistani debate is silent on the fact that even though the Treaty gives India the right to use the waters of the Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej), Pakistan is getting free 2 MAF of water through these rivers because India has not been able to fully utilize the waters of these rivers. The poor state of water structure on the Indian side has allowed this water to flow into Pakistan free.
A frequent Pakistani complaint is that India is “stealing” Pakistan’s water. But no evidence is given to support the allegation. Since India has not built any storage facilities, where would it store the water? Whatever water India takes from the Western rivers is for non-consumptive use allowed under the Treaty. The Pakistani Indus Commission is regularly supplied with the data on this score.
The Pakistani side has complained of the reduced flows of water in the Western rivers. The fact that there are seasonal variations in the flow of water due to differences in monsoon and glacial melt is normally ignored in the Pakistani discourse. Jamaat Ali Shah, the Head of Pakistan’s Indus River Commission, has stated in an interview that India and Pakistan should “look beyond” the Treaty to discuss such issues as the impact of climate change on water resources. Unfortunately, the Treaty, which is a technical document, does not envisage discussion on climate change or environmental issues as these were not issues in 1960.
Undoubtedly, climate change will emerge as a major factor affecting the health of glaciers and rivers in South Asia. India and Pakistan need to discuss these issues seriously. Instead, Pakistani politicians, media and military officers are fanning baseless anti-India rhetoric.
The Pakistani media is also dishing out ill-informed opinions on the Neutral Expert’s determination on the Baglihar dam. It may be recalled that India constructed the Baglihar dam on river Chenab. The dam became operational in 2008. However, the commissioning of the dam was delayed by Pakistan as it took the issue of the dam’s design to the Neutral Expert provided for in the Indus Water Treaty. The Neutral Expert upheld the design parameters of the Baglihar dam, particularly those relating to the location of “spillways”, “pondage” and height. The Neutral Expert stated clearly that sediment control, which dictated the design parameters, was crucial to dam construction. He also upheld India’s view that the first objective of “pondage”, to which Pakistan had objected, was to regulate the flow of the river to meet consumer demand.
Pakistan considers the waters of the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum as “its waters”. Pakistani jihadist groups routinely link jihad with struggle over water in Kashmir. Hafeez Saeed, chief of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayebba, has threatened jihad against India over water issues. The Pakistani media is silent on the fact that the people of Jammu and Kashmir regard the Indus Water Treaty as unfair since it places restrictions on the use of these waters. Thus, on one hand Pakistanis support the “freedom struggle” in Kashmir, while on the other they would deprive Kashmiris of the use of water in the Western rivers.
The Kishanganga hydroelectric project is the next point of contention likely to sour India-Pakistan relations. The Kishanganga river is a tributary of the Jhelum. It originates in Jammu & Kashmir, enters Azad Kashmir (Azad Kashmir) after Gurej, flows along the Line of Control (LoC) as the Neelum river and joins the Jhelum at Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir. India is planning to build a hydroelectric project on this river. It will be a run-of-the river project which will require diverting the water of the Kishanganga river through an underground tunnel. Pakistan has objected to the Kishanganga hydroelectric project. It is contemplating taking the issue to the Court of Arbitration and the Neutral Expert in accordance with the terms of the Indus Water Treaty. India is confident that it has a valid case on the Kishanganga project.
There appears to be a deliberate attempt in Pakistan to use the water issue to inflame public opinion against India. This appears to be a part of the larger design of the Pakistani military to drive home to Western interlocutors the continued salience of India in Pakistan’s security calculus. Though Pakistan is facing the prospect of destabilization due to radicalization of its society, the Pakistan Army continues to project India as the number one threat. The water issue is being used to divert attention from 26/11 and the larger issue of terrorism, which India regards as the main issue between India and Pakistan.
http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/Viciousanti-IndiapropagandainPakistanonWaterissues_agupta_290310
“India is not stealing water”: Pakistani water expert Arshad H Abbasi
Water is the driving force of all nature, said Leonardo da Vinci. But in case of the strained India-Pakistan ties, the exact opposite is true: it has been the stalling force. With a cloud of distrust always hovering above, even the best intentions have been misconstrued and hostilities alleged.
Take the case of Tulbul navigation project (what Pakistan refers to as the Wullar barrage). In the mid-1980s, India started building a dam on the Jhelum river to help make it navigable throughout the year, but had to suspend work after Pakistan complained that the Jhelum’s currents would be slowed in its territory, and that the work violated a water-sharing pact. Nine rounds of secretary-level talks have been held since the project was stalled, followed by five more meetings in 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 between the two countries. The latest one resumed on March 27 in New Delhi in the presence of a 13-member delegation from Pakistan led by water and power secretary Imtiaz Kazi.
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty governs the use of the water flowing down the rivers which course though both the countries. As per the accord, India has ‘unrestricted’ use of water from three rivers in the east – the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi. Pakistan has ‘unrestricted’ use of the water of the western rivers – the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum. Pakistan accuses India of violating the treaty by reducing the flow of water down the rivers it was awarded use of. Pakistan also objects to India’s Baglihar hydropower and water storage project on the river Chenab. India denies any unfair diversion of Pakistan’s water.
While some Indian analysts maintain that Pakistani complaints are aimed more at diverting attention within Pakistan from the internal water row, the chorus of India stealing water from the western rivers is increasing in Pakistan by the day.
In an interview with Trithesh Nandan, Pakistani water expert Arshad H Abbasi strikes a different chord. He says emphatically that India is not stealing water, and that the problem of water scarcity in Pakistan is more due to its mismanagement. Abbasi is senior advisor, water & renewable energy, with the Islamabad-based think tank Sustainable Development Policy Institute. He says it is not terrorism, Kashmir or even boundary dispute but water and environment issues that need an urgent attention from both the sides. Edited excerpts…
In the last three-four years, water issues between the rival nations have grown bigger than ever. Your comments.I always want to make a point on this issue. Please don’t mix rivalry with water. Around 60-70 percent of population in Pakistan is dependent on water from Indus basin rivers. An ordinary person is least bothered about issues between India and Pakistan. But he is concerned about his own water woes. In the last few years, the flow of the Chenab is fluctuating. The issue started with the Baglihar dam on the Chenab. Pakistan protested its construction. It raised the question of design. The Indus Water Treaty has also specifications on design. India raised (and rightly so) the issue of sedimentation. Since 1992, the sedimentation has increased manifold. Because of the sedimentation, India says that it changed the design.
Pakistan complained about the Baglihar dam to the World Bank and in response an independent arbitration was set up. On several counts, it rejected Pakistan’s claims.
Before Pakistan went to the independent arbitrator, India gave an assurance that it will reduce the height of the dam but Pakistan refused and went to the World Bank. The verdict came in 2007, upholding only a few objections raised by Pakistan like pondage capacity to be reduced by 13.5 percent, height of dam structure be reduced by 1.5 metres and power intake tunnels be raised by 3 metres, thereby limiting some flow control capabilities of the earlier design.
But Pakistan was not satisfied with the verdict. As an independent analyst, how do you see the decision?The decision was the best given by a neutral panel. A larger section in Pakistan still feels other way round. It is a matter of understanding. The larger voice, which opposes the decision, does not know the subject very well.
People in Pakistan say that India is stopping the flow of the western rivers by constructing more than dozen dams.My point is different. The water flow of the Chenab and Jhelum has been drastically reduced, because of a reduction in monsoon rainfall in the watershed of the Chenab. However, India should also look into why it is constructing so many dams.
So in your view, India should not be accused of stopping the flow?So far, to my knowledge, India is not stealing water. It does not have the capacity to steal water. There is certainly a reduced flow, so there is anxiety on the Pakistani side. You know we are living in a state of hostility. Accusations are the natural fallout.
I have a basic question for both the countries: why don’t you take help of technology to track the water flow of the Indus basin rivers? This will help remove the mistrust between the two countries. But both the countries won’t agree to the use of such technology because of a mental block. The officials sitting in the Indus Water Treaty Commission on both the sides are so much pressurised that they can’t go beyond the treaty.
Then why has the flow of the rivers reduced?That’s more due to environmental impact. The 65-year-old hostility has taken a toll on the environment, which can be seen in the Kashmir valley. Our rivers are drying. I have been advocating serious dialogue between India and Pakistan on the environmental issues. Environmental disasters don’t follow international borders.
Both the countries also need to work on joint watershed management. An environmental impact assessment is the best instrument to assess the possible negative impact that a proposed project may have on the environment, together with the water flow in the rivers.
What is Pakistan’s objection to the Kishanganga project?In this case, India argues that it will divert the water of Kishanganga (Neelum in Pakistan) to join the Jhelum river, which also flows through Pakistan – and that therefore the water will ultimately reach Pakistan. Due to the construction of the Kishanganga project, water will be diverted from the Neelum and a 90-km stretch of the river that 6,00,000 people depend on for agriculture and fisheries will dry up. But why divert water from the Neelum valley then? It will impact the whole environment. If you see studies done on Farakka barrage (on the India-Bangladesh border), it had the worst effect on water and environment.
What is the water scenario in Pakistan?There is gross mismanagement of water in Pakistan. Recently, the Lahore high court pulled up the government on this issue. The governments have paid lip service when it comes to conservation of water. I started a project on rainwater harvesting in Pakistan but people questioned it. “How can rainwater be used for drinking purpose,” they asked. There were a few rainwater harvesting projects during the British rule. But they don’t exist anymore.
Did the government show any interest in your project?It is a low-cost water conserving project. It is not a mega project so the government has not taken it up. There should be strong accountability. Pakistan does not have enough reservoirs or dams to store water.
Tell us about one success story from Pakistan in this sector.It was stopping the New Murree project. As soon as the project was initiated by former president Pervez Musharraf, I made a vigorous campaign against the project. Had the project completed, the area would have faced serious environmental disaster. The supreme court took suo motu action and chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry gave a judgment against the president. Development projects are often planned without considering human and environmental aspects and subsequently such development process results into disastrous consequences for both people and environment.
But due to my opposition, I suffered a lot. I was also forced to resign from the post of director of the planning commission. If you take a closer look, it is basically due to the government’s inefficiency that Pakistan is facing energy, water and electricity crises.
While Pakistan blames India for its water problem, a closer look suggests that its industries mainly textile and sugar waste a lot of water.
All the industries are closed now. They have been closed due to cheap Chinese products coming to Pakistan. Nobody even complains about it because we are a friendly nation to China. Also, when you get electricity for two hours, how can industry survive?
GovernanceNow.com | “India is not stealing water”
