CaptainJackSparrow
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Water crisis in the subcontinent
US Senates Foreign Relations Committee has warned against a water crisis in Asia leading to water wars in the subcontinent.
Its report says that new dams and irrigation works in Kashmir could give India the ability to deny Pakistan its share of water at crucial moments like crop growing seasons. The Indus Water Treaty that regulates the water sharing by two countries was signed in 1960 and has remained intact despite major conflicts including wars in the area.
However, times are changing and India is trying to have more control over the water it shares with Pakistan. Pakistan, argues India, has failed to construct enough dams and reservoirs on the downstream rivers resulting in annual discharging of 30-35 million acre-feet water in the Arabian Sea. So India has the right to store the water for irrigation and power generation purposes.
India has already initiated several hydropower projects on different rivers that will increase the water storage capacity up to 2.2 million acre-feet against the agreed capacity of 1.7 million acre-feet. Regrettably, Pakistans reaction to India building dams in apparent violation of the Indus Water Treaty has been very feeble. Nor has it shown any urgency to store the water at its end.
As per US senate report, at present 33 Indian hydropower projects are at different stages of completion on the rivers it shares with Pakistan. Obviously India will find a way to go around the treaty to complete the projects, leaving Pakistan to look to the World Bank and other international agencies to settle the dispute. Unlike India, Pakistans agriculture is entirely dependent on link-canal based irrigation system fed from the rivers flowing into Pakistan from India. There is no time to lose. We hope Pakistans central and provincial governments would treat the issue seriously and initiate some remedial action unless they want Pakistan turn into a desert.
Water crisis in the subcontinent - Arab News