IWT violation: India not sharing flood information since 1999
By
Sehrish Wasif
Published: July 10, 2017
PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: There may be multiple reasons for floods in the country, but Pakistan’s archrival India has also played a major role in aggravating Pakistan’s problems.
Official sources say New Delhi – despite being bound by the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) – has not shared with Islamabad details about water outflow from its rivers since 1999, causing major floods in Pakistan.
During all these years, Pakistan has repeatedly requested India for provision of information with regard to rains and floods but India has been reluctant to share timely information.
Due to the absence of this vital information, Pakistan is unable to get accurate and timely preparation for the monsoon and remains at risk of heavy flooding. In last 15 years, Pakistan has to endure at least five major floods that have caused huge human and financial losses.
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According to a senior government official, Pakistan has raised this issue several times at various international conferences and meetings, but the Indian government has turned a dead ear.
“Earlier there was some possibility of convincing India but as the tension between the two countries is mounting it seems very difficult to get the required information from the hostile neighbour,” he told this correspondent.
In a high-level meeting held recently, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt Gen Omar Mehmood Hayat also urged ‘upper riparian neighbour’ India to cooperate by giving timely information on water outflow from its rivers and actual rainfall recorded as stipulated in the IWT.
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The NDMA chief observed that along with the flood hazards from heavy rainfall in catchment areas and glacial melt, release of waters from across the borders in eastern and western rivers like Kabul, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus was the major vulnerability.
He also urged the Pakistan Commission for Indus Water (PCIW) to enhance coordination mechanism of early warning arrangements for release of water, especially from the eastern rivers so that timely and effective response for flood mitigation may be initiated by relevant stakeholders.
