Crisis deepens as India blocks Chenab flow

[Awesome]

India does-not take instructions from anyone be it USA or West or China. We always have worked in our self-interest (since our independence) something which pakistan ought to learn from us. Truth hurts isn't it...

Then why is it doing this? War against poor farmers? Starve the poor campaign?

 

[Neo]

India does-not take instructions from anyone be it USA or West or China. We always have worked in our self-interest (since our independence) something which pakistan ought to learn from us. Truth hurts isn't it...

The truth is that Chenab River belongs to Kashmir, not India and you have no right to block the river in a disputed territory. Kashmiri's should have the right to decide what they want to do with their water and I assure you that no Kashmiri muslim would like to see Pakistani farmer suffer over their water.

Your government is again abusing Kashmir to blakmail Pakistan.
Yeah...truth hurts!

 

[PakSniper]

My strategy would be to blast the Indian Dams, and accept the loss of Indian life as "necessary" and colotarel damage.

 

[Neo]

With what consequences? We'll be marked as agressors and grilled by international media.

 

[PakSniper]

With what consequences? We'll be marked as agressors and grilled by international media.

Doesn't matter the consiquences, every action we have taken to gurantee our security Pakistan has always been slammed by the international media in the past and will be so in the future. This time it willn't be any different.

Although the image of a nation is crucial to uphold, the population is much more sacred to protect and feed.

 

[Goodperson]

The title is misleading how can whole river flow be stopped or change its course? Sure India does not want another Kosi.

I agree with Pankaj we need to wait for official GOI reaction. But even as per reports India had diverted flow of water to fill Baglihar Dam lake in Kashmir but even this is unofficial.

 

[third eye]

The truth is that Chenab River belongs to Kashmir, not India and you have no right to block the river in a disputed territory. Kashmiri's should have the right to decide what they want to do with their water and I assure you that no Kashmiri muslim would like to see Pakistani farmer suffer over their water.

Your government is again abusing Kashmir to blakmail Pakistan.
Yeah...truth hurts!

Personally, I don't know how authentic this news is, if it were a great deal of stink would have been raised by now.

just for the record ..

How is it that only Kashmir & not jammu + laddakh is a disputed territory ? The Chenab flows thru jammu as well before it heads for Marala in Pak.

My strategy would be to blast the Indian Dams, and accept the loss of Indian life as "necessary" and colotarel damage
Thank god no one in our Govts takes our hair brained ideas seriously. Blasting Dams !! The last time this happened was in WW II..

Has anyone thought of the consequences & retaliation ? If blasting structures were a soloution to problems, US would have had no problems left by now.

 

[Pankaj]

Then why is it doing this? War against poor farmers? Starve the poor campaign?

Again I can only say that lets wait for this news to be confirmed from Indian side as well.

 

[Spring Onion]

Again I can only say that lets wait for this news to be confirmed from Indian side as well.

Has any thief ever accepted that he is a thief ????

 

[IceCold]

Like i said you will not hear any thing official from the GOI or the media reason being that GOI is one who's violating the IWT at the first place, dont expect any uproar in the media.
Also the timing of such incident is superb. Just when Pakistan is on the brink of an armed conflict with the worlds sole super power, India decided why to stay behind, lets teach these pakis a lesson. Sheikh Rashid once said that those who think there will be peace with India are living in the fool paradise and how true he is. For all these years we were wasting time in CBMs and thinking we are moving towards peace finally and where do we stand now. Peace only is possible where the dispute is over something and not in ideology. Pakistanis most importantly the political leaders need to realize this fact before going any futhure with their relations with a country that does not even accepted the existence of Pakistan since it was created and still consider it as a part of Akhand Bharat.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I think GP raises a good point.

It is possible that this is a temporary diversion of water to the Baglihar reservoir, and therefore does not constitute a complete abrogation of the IWT. Nonetheless, this diversion I believe was one of the issues that Pakistan did raise around the design of the Baglihar, and the diversion is also a violation of the exclusive use rights granted to Pakistan under the IWT.

This could be why the question of compensation is being raised. Why would Pakistan talk of compensation if it suspected a complete abrogation of the IWT. India is illegally diverting the waters, and this will have consequences for Pakistan's food supply and economy.

It does once again raise the issue of Indian duplicity and hostility.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Blockade of Chenab River inflicts Rs37bn loss to agriculture​

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: Punjab, the food basket of entire Pakistan, has sustained a huge monetary loss amounting to almost Rs37 billion in the wake of a blockade of Chenab River by India.

According to a senior official in the Punjab irrigation department, over 10 million acres of land in the province has been affected and the standing paddy crop in the area has suffered a lot, as it was the time of maturity and the province badly needed the last watering, which could not be completed just because of the blatant violations of Indus Waters Treaty 1960 by India and continuing to fill up the dead shortage of Baglihar HPP beyond August 31, 2008.

Under the treaty, India cannot reduce the flow in Chenab River below 55,000 cusecs between 21st June and August 31, 2008, whereas Pakistan had been receiving a discharge of as low as 20,000 cusecs during August-September 2008.

The official further said that the government had projected the rice production at 5.7 million tonnes, but the reduction in flows in Chenab River at this point of time will reduce the production by 15 to 20 per cent. This means that rice production will come down from the expected target of 5.7 million tonnes to 4.7 million tonnes.

To a question, he said that these are the preliminary estimates. However, Punjab irrigation department has started working to exactly ***** the losses, which the agrarian economy of the province will sustain.

To a question he said that 10 million acres land in areas of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Hafizabad, Faisalabad, Okara, Lahore, Pak Patan, Vehari and Bawalnaghar have been affected. Out of 10 million acres of land, 5.6 million acres of land has adversely been affected in the areas of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Jhang, Faisalabad and Sheikhupura.

When contacted, Pakistan Commissioner of Indus Water Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, who was on his way to Lahore after attending the meeting in Islamabad held on Tuesday with Minister for Water & Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf in the chair over the interference of flows of River Chenab at Marala head works in Pakistan, said that Pakistan has the option to move Neutral Expert or Court of Arbitration seeking for penalty against India for violation of the treaty.

“First the issue will be taken up at the level of Permanent Commission of Indus Waters (PCIW) for solution once and for all and incase of failure, Pakistan has the option to move Neutral Expert and Court of Arbitration.”

He said that Neutral Expert under the treaty can be moved for compensation of water loss and Arbitration Court for financial loss in case India refuses to pay the compensation.

In the forthcoming meeting of PCIW, he said that Pakistan would come up with solid proof based on undeniable data about the blatant violation of the treaty committed by India.

To another query, Shah said that India has stored 0.2 million acre feet of water for Baglihar project to make it operational in the current month of September.

He vowed that he is to soon visit the site of the Bagluhar project as he has sought dates for the visit from Indian Commission of Indus Water to this effect. However, he said that the Indian Commission is still unmoved over the demand of Pakistan seeking the data of inflows in Chenab River. “My counterpart has so far shown inability in letting us know about the exact inflows of the Chenab River.”

Meanwhile, a very crucial meeting on the reduction in flows of River Chenab at Marala head works was held in the Ministry of Water & Power under the Chairmanship of Minister for Water & Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf. The meeting was attended by senior officers of Ministry of Water & Power, Foreign Office PCIW, Law & Justice, WAPDA, Irrigation Department, Punjab and the related institutions.

The meeting was apprised that India had committed a blatant violation of the Indus Water Treaty by reducing Chenab flows to Pakistan and continuing to fill up the dead shortage of Baglihar HPP beyond August 31, 2008.

Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Water (PCIW) gave a detailed presentation on the issue and informed that he had already taken up the issue with his Indian counterpart. This was followed by a comprehensive discussion. The members were apprised that the initial filling of dead storage of Baglihar Plant in AJ&K on river Chenab resulted in to a substantial reduction of water at Marala.

This has caused a massive agricultural loss to vast areas of Marala command canals. It has also resulted in early depletion of Mangla dam reserves so as to mitigate some of the adverse affects on certain canals. The overall loss to the national economy (loss of water, damage to agricultural crops, overconsumption of energy for running tube wells, etc) had thus been colossal, which are being assessed by the Government of Punjab.

Blockade of Chenab River inflicts Rs37bn loss to agriculture

 

[asaad-ul-islam]

looks like we are heading in for a rough storm. the timing is a bit too perfect, don't you think? the only thing I see is us heading towards is a nuclear winter.

 

[muse]

Did this blockade begin when Pakistan blockaded supplies to NATO?

 

[Goodperson]

I think GP raises a good point.

It is possible that this is a temporary diversion of water to the Baglihar reservoir, and therefore does not constitute a complete abrogation of the IWT. Nonetheless, this diversion I believe was one of the issues that Pakistan did raise around the design of the Baglihar, and the diversion is also a violation of the exclusive use rights granted to Pakistan under the IWT.

This could be why the question of compensation is being raised. Why would Pakistan talk of compensation if it suspected a complete abrogation of the IWT. India is illegally diverting the waters, and this will have consequences for Pakistan's food supply and economy.

It does once again raise the issue of Indian duplicity and hostility.

Thanks AM below news confirms my assumption. Media across border has unneccesarily hyped the news to the extent of blockage of Chenab.

Chenab fuels fresh Indo-Pak tension

NEW DELHI: A water dispute has become the latest flashpoint in India-Pakistan relations already spiraling downhill since the blast in the Indian embassy in Kabul.
On Tuesday, Pakistan high commissioner Shahid Malik met foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to formally protest the reduction in release of water from the Chenab river. Officials in Islamabad dubbed it a “gross violation” of the Indus Water Treaty.

Islamabad claimed India reduced the water flow to fill up the Baglihar dam in Kashmir, leading to a loss of livelihood for Pakistani farmers.

Menon, acknowledging the Pakistani complaint, said India had proposed a meeting of the Indus Water Commission to assess Pakistani claims about reduction in the Chenab flow.

He explained that Chenab’s water level was low this year compared to last year due to insufficient rain. The situation has already created a drought-like situation in Jammu, he said.

Menon said Pakistan had been already informed of the impending reduction in water levels as filling of the Baglihar dam was in progress. The level has now returned to normal.

However, he disputed the figures forwarded by Pakistan. “We have proposed a meeting of two Indus water commissioners to sort out these figures,” he said.
Menon said the water flow had resumed to normal as filling of Baglihar was now complete. “We have explained the situation to the Pakistan high commissioner. We are still to reconcile with the figures. The main problem is there was a lean period this year,” he explained.

Three units of the Baglihar power project are expected to generate electricity from next week in power-starved Kashmir. India says the reservoir has been filled with 32.56 million cubic metres of water as recommended by World Bank.

Reports from Pakistan suggest that due to the filling of the dam their water levels have gone down to 22,000 cusecs. Pakistan’s Indus commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah, who talked to his Indian counterpart G Aringanathan, said while India reserved the right to fill the dam, Pakistan should receive 55,000 cusecs of water at its head in Marala.

Indian officials stressed that under the provision of the Indus Water Treaty, India had the right to fill the reservoir between June 26 and August 31. “There is no bar on the content of water,” a senior official said.

DNA - India - Chenab fuels fresh Indo-Pak tension - Daily News & Analysis