Recently, a document titled United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reveals that India is all set to get the carbon credits of almost $700 million for 10 years against seven hydropower projects being
built on Pakistans river Indus, Chenab and Jhelum from UN on 28 July . This will automatically provide legitimacy to all the projects. Indias seeking carbon credits from UN is also linked with Kishanganga project.
Pakistan is already in a legal battle with India on Kishanganga Project in International Court of Arbitration at The Hague. The International Court of Arbitration (ICA) has granted a stay order, restraining India from going ahead with the controversial hydro power project over river Kishanganga in Gurez area of occupied Kashmir. Under the ICA order, India will not construct a permanent structure over River Neelum/Kishanganga that may affect the flow of water downstream. Pakistan had lodged a complaint in the court of arbitration that Indian bid to build Kishanganga dam was violation of World Bank brokered Indus Water Treaty of 1960. On Indian refusal Pakistan went to the ICA, which now issued the interim order on the issue restraining India from dam construction. Pakistan is confronted with a situation whereby India is trying to make IWT ineffective. Kishanganga is one among many projects that Pakistan is becoming wary of.
Pakistan is a lower riparian state, which gets almost all its water from Indian Held Kashmir. To negate any major confrontation between the two countries, the World Bank helped them reach an agreement through the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in 1960. The treaty has withstood two major wars between the nuclear-armed countries besides smaller conflicts. But now the situation is changing, as Pakistans water needs have increased and the country is confronted with water shortage.
India initiated the Kishanganga project, costing $820 million, in the Gurez-Bandipora area of Kashmir, which would divert parts Neelum/Kishanganga flow which will be used to generate energy and raised level of water in the Wullar Lake. It involves construction of a 37-meter high concrete faced rock-fill dam which connected via a 22-kilometer water diversion tunnel.
If completed, the dam would result in a 21% drop in Neelum Rivers inflow; thereby the diversion of the Kishanganga River by India will reduce 27 per cent of the power-generation capacity of its Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Project. There is also fear of
reduced river flows for at least six months every year, irreparable loss to the environment, especially to the Musk Deer Gurez Park, a vast national park in AJK near the LoC, and a dent in the tourism potential of the Neelum valley. About
200 kilometers of riverbed will be affected by the project and about 40 kilometers of the length of the river will completely dry up; the
water reduction will also severely affect agriculture. Kishanganga is not the only project that India and Pakistan have been fighting over. The two countries had faced off over the
Baglihar hydel-power project, built by damming the Chenab River in Indian Kashmir. In 2008
Pakistan was faced with decreased flow of water in the Chenab when India started to fill the dam. The river feeds water to 21 major canals and irrigates about 2.8 million hectares of arable land in Pakistan. Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), an economic think-tank, calculated that
filling the Baglihar dam would inflict a loss of $1.5 billion on Pakistan. Analysts termed it a hydro weapon. The fast-flowing Chenab, a vital river for Pakistans agriculture, has a high potential for generating power and India plans to generate 16,000MW of energy by constructing nine power houses on it.India maintains a
huge military machine in Occupied Kashmir, much larger than the United States and its allies, put together, have in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Occupied Kashmir, its t
hree-quarters of a million troops perhaps out number any such expeditionary force stationed in an occupied or disputed area since the Second World War. On the face of it, the deployment is tasked to deal with freedom fighters, which of course is a daunting challenge, but more importantly, it is there to change the face of the Muslim-majority landscape called Kashmir; its main weapon being brutal use of force against unarmed civilian population. But where its work goes almost
unnoticed is the security it provides to Indian engineers, who are planning and working day and night to build dams on rivers that take water to Pakistan. So furiously are they working and in such so-far inaccessible areas that of late,
New Delhi is thinking of bringing these projects under the enhanced protection cover of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). All this work falls within the definition of an aqua war India is preparing to foist on Pakistan. India is rapidly moving towards its target of making Pakistan totally barren by building dams on three major rivers Chenab, Jhelum and Indus flowing into Pakistan from the Indian side of the border.
These dams are being built in shrewd violation of provisions in Indus Water Treaty signed between the two countries to ensure equitable distribution of water resources. India is doing its best to overturn the IWT but Pakistan must not fall into the Indian trap by following a two-pronged strategy. First, to pursue this case with full vigour, and ensure that the stay is confirmed, second, to utilize this breathing space to start building irrigation-cum-generation projects on the Indus. However, a permanent solution will involve a settlement of the Kashmir issue. It would mean a general Indo-Pak settlement, ridding us of threat of water projects in Indian Held Kashmir.
Indo-Pak water dispute
Blasting all your guns at me....
.I will reply in a short time .....
Not blasting putting fwd what you asked...Besides others are only trolling and laughing like they have not heard of water disputes ...wait maybe they really havent, then they should not be on this thread
