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Pakistan And India-Water Disputes-News And Updates

Any threads that relate to Pakistan India affairs go in the Strategic Affairs section, not India Defence.

This section is for India military/defence related threads, that do not involve Pakistan, only.
 
Any threads that relate to Pakistan India affairs go in the Strategic Affairs section, not India Defence.

This section is for India military/defence related threads, that do not involve Pakistan, only.

Agno.. On a lighter note.. You will be hard pressed to find Indian Defence related threads/posts/issues that do not involve Pakistan..:azn:
 
India says design of Nimo-Bazgo hydropower project is within limits

LAHORE: Rejecting Pakistan's call for a change in the design, India today said the design of Nimmo-Bazgo hydropower project was within the permissible limits of the Indus Waters Treaty and there is no need to change it.

India's Indus waters commissioner G Ranganathan told his Pakistani counterpart Jamaat Ali Shah during the second day of the three-day talks here that there was no need for changing the design.

During yesterday's talks, Pakistan has sought changes in the design of the Nimmo-Bazgo hydropower project.

On the second day of three-day talks here, the Indian and Pakistani delegations stuck to their respective positions on the Nimmo-Bazgo and Chutak power projects, over which Islamabad has expressed reservations.

At the end of today's discussions, Pakistan's Indus waters commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah told reporters the two sides will again hold talks on the Nimmo-Bazgo project tomorrow and also take up the Chutak hydropower plant.

Ranganathan said India remained committed to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 and was "designing all power projects as per the criteria permitted under it".

He said India would address all concerns and reservations expressed by Pakistan.

During today's parleys, the Pakistani side insisted that the Nimmo-Bazgo project's design was based on the "maximum projected notional figures regarding water and flood flows".

It insisted that Indian side must take into account actual river flow figures and adjust the design accordingly so that chances of "manipulating water flow" could be minimised.

Shah also said Pakistan could opt for third party arbitration under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty if the issue is not resolved amicably.

The two sides were trying to achieve "convergence" under the terms of the treaty, he added. The talks will conclude tomorrow.
 
The Indus Waters Treaty conundrum


The recent statements of Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner Jamat Ali Shah about the future of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) 1960 have landed Pakistani water experts in a conundrum.

“I think the World Bank treaty is likely to be jeopardised,” Shah, who led the Pak delegation in meetings with his Indian counterparts in Lahore, told the press earlier. “We will now have to look beyond the Treaty for solutions. India is allowed run-off hydro-electric projects according to the treaty, but two or three is different from more than a hundred.”

Most experts warn against abandoning the IWT, that turns 50-year-old on Thursday, despite the intricate and difficult problems it poses. “The IWT is a wonderful instrument. However, our present managers simply don’t have the capacity for the state-of-the-art knowledge required to safeguard our rights,” says Arshad H Abbassi, Research Fellow with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad. “We should never go for re-negotiations on the IWT or we will be done for.”

There is “no exit clause in the treaty” as Dr. Shahid Ahmad, member Natural Resources with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and an eminent water resources management expert, notes. However, there is provision for an Addendum to the existing Treaty — “IWT-II” as some term it.

Dr Ahmad advocates holding further talks to “address issues the existing instrument does not cover adequately.” These include guarantees for minimum flow from hydro-electric projects in the Indian territories, timely provision of discharge data and other Indian obligations under the Treaty.

The IWT is silent on water quality and other environmental issues like watershed management and on the unconfined aquifers in the Indus Basin. It provides no remedy for the over-exploitation of these shared aquifers in Indian Punjab.

Water tables are falling by a whopping three feet annually, says Dr Ahmad, citing a recent NASA study. “This affects us, being downstream. Both India and Pakistan must find a way to agree upon safe yields for this resource as we also depend heavily on groundwater for our agriculture. Let no one forget that India may put up power projects but the water rights still belong to Pakistan.”

The IWT-II idea is not new, notes development expert Syed Ayub Qutub. “Many Indian experts have been calling for this for at least two decades. India took waters from the eastern rivers to the desert in Rajasthan via the Indira Gandhi Canal.

“They now have severe water-logging and salinity problems. So they would like to discharge their effluent in the rivers Sutlej and Ravi to send to Pakistan.”

The IWT does not allow this. The Indian protaganists for IWT-II also have support from those in Kashmir who want greater irrigation rights from western rivers, he says.

Syed Qutub does not rule out further negotiations since the “IWT is not time-bound”. Pakistan, he notes, gave up all its rights under the international instruments governing sharing of international waters, besides denying environmental flows in the eastern rivers.

Although, Pakistan could do better in fresh negotiations, he warns that in the composition of the teams “the balance of knowledge will decide”.

Former chairman Water and Power Development Authority and a celebrated water resources expert Shamsul Mulk strongly opposes abandoning the IWT despite its unpopularity.

“We have lost three rivers but there are certain positive and negative things, and certain things that need to be improved as far as possible. Our position is to address the implementation of shortcomings and improve dispute resolution.”

“The treaty has to be interpreted sincerely,” he adds. “The important thing about water treaties is the conduct of the upper riparian, which determines the success and failure of a treaty. “I hope in the coming years when both Pakistan and India are faced with greater pressures, India’s conduct will not negate the spirit of understanding reached in September 1960.”

The Indus Waters Treaty conundrum
 
Pakistani foreign minister lets 'water' secret out?- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos


In what could come as a filip for India in its water disputes with Pakistan, the Pakistani Foreign Minisiter Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said in an interview to a Pakistani channel, that his country's water woes are because of their own wastage and not because of India.

Qureshi has confessed that Pakistan's water woes are primarily due to wastage on its own soil and not because India is hogging water upstream.

"The total average canal supplies of Pakistan are 104 million acres/ft. And the water available at the farm gate is about 70 million acre/ft. Where does the 34 million acre/ft go? It's not being stolen in India, it's been wasted in Pakistan," Qureshi said in the interview.

The confession comes at a time when Pakistan has expressed reservations about India building the a hydroelectric power project on the Kishenganga River which is a tributary of the Indus.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have taken up the water issue as a new focus. Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed had recently warned that there could be war over water-sharing between Pakistan and India.

India and Pakistan have had a slew of disagreements regarding the sharing of water from rivers common to both countries.

In 1984 India proposed to build the Tulbul Navigation Project on River Jhelum. India claimed that the project would make Jhelum navigable during the summer. But Pakistan has opposed construction saying that India can control the flow of water forcing India to stop work. Then in 1992 Pakistan had also raised objections to the now complete Baglihar dam that India has built over River Chenab. Pakistan has claimed that the Baglihar project is a violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 which guides water sharing between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan's latest complaint is against the hydroelectric power project that India is building on River Kishanganga project. Pakistan has claimed that any effort to influence the water flow of the Indus upstream will affect its plans of building a power project downstream.
 
Pakistani foreign minister lets 'water' secret out?

In what could come as a filip for India in its water disputes with Pakistan, the Pakistani Foreign Minisiter Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said in an interview to a Pakistani channel, that his country's water woes are because of their own wastage and not because of India.

Qureshi has confessed that Pakistan's water woes are primarily due to wastage on its own soil and not because India is hogging water upstream.

"The total average canal supplies of Pakistan are 104 million acres/ft. And the water available at the farm gate is about 70 million acre/ft. Where does the 34 million acre/ft go? It's not being stolen in India, it's been wasted in Pakistan," Qureshi said in the interview.

The confession comes at a time when Pakistan has expressed reservations about India building the a hydroelectric power project on the Kishenganga River which is a tributary of the Indus.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have taken up the water issue as a new focus. Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed had recently warned that there could be war over water-sharing between Pakistan and India.

India and Pakistan have had a slew of disagreements regarding the sharing of water from rivers common to both countries.

In 1984 India proposed to build the Tulbul Navigation Project on River Jhelum. India claimed that the project would make Jhelum navigable during the summer. But Pakistan has opposed construction saying that India can control the flow of water forcing India to stop work. Then in 1992 Pakistan had also raised objections to the now complete Baglihar dam that India has built over River Chenab. Pakistan has claimed that the Baglihar project is a violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 which guides water sharing between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan's latest complaint is against the hydroelectric power project that India is building on River Kishanganga project. Pakistan has claimed that any effort to influence the water flow of the Indus upstream will affect its plans of building a power project downstream.

Pakistani foreign minister lets 'water' secret out?- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos
 
This puts the whole nonsense about India stealing water to dust.. And before any Pakistani member starts going..."Indian Media", this was a video interview on which Qureshi said this. The video should be up on You tube in a few hours...
 
Karan, no one is disputing that the distribution of water in Pakistan (and India!) is inefficient. Most of the agricultural land in the Sub continent is cultivated via flood irrigation whereas moving to the more capital intensive and efficient drip irrigation would save a lot of water. Both countries could similarly line any remaining "kacha" canals to prevent losses in transit. This is no "secret" as the thread title indicates. And please understand that the inefficient use of water once it crosses into Pakistan is not an IWT issue, nor is it something Pakistan is blaming India for.

The reasons Pakistan is unhappy with India on the water issue have to do with violation of treaty articles on things like notification periods, the amount of water India can store in a facility vs. what is being stored and so on.

There are two completely separate issues and they should not be confused, nor should the distribution of water in Pakistan - efficient or otherwise - absolve or indict India with respect to claimed violations of the IWT. Let's please not obfuscate the issue at hand by bringing in valid but unrelated elements.
 
Everyone knows who is stealing water dude.............i have already marked it in other thread that
if Indians cry soooo much then how come they face water shortage.....u guyz r stealing it according to Indus water treaty......according to which u guyz cant build a dam or use water of three rivers which r owned by Pakistan .....by the division of water!!!
 
India will not use Pak water, says Nathan | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online


LAHORE - India Wednesday assured Pakistan that New Delhi would not use a single drop of water from Islamabad’s share of waters.
Before leaving for India, the Indian Indus Water Commissioner G Auranga Nathan told reporters here at Allama Iqbal International Airport that India would not “use a single drop from Pakistan’s share of water.”
He also said that Nimo Bazgo and Chutak hydropower projects of India on Indus River would not stop water flow. He said Indian projects would just recycle the water for energy and throw it back into the river. “In this way India will not steal share of Pakistan’s water,” he reiterated.
The Indus Water Commissioner of India further said that the both sides discussed several issues during the three-day parleys here in Lahore and consensus was found on some issues while a number of others were left. “We will discuss the remaining issues in next round of talks,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jamaat Shah Pakistan's Indus Water Commissioner saw off the 9-member Indian team at the airport.
 
Pakistani foreign minister lets 'water' secret out?

In what could come as a filip for India in its water disputes with Pakistan, the Pakistani Foreign Minisiter Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said in an interview to a Pakistani channel, that his country's water woes are because of their own wastage and not because of India.

Qureshi has confessed that Pakistan's water woes are primarily due to wastage on its own soil and not because India is hogging water upstream.

"The total average canal supplies of Pakistan are 104 million acres/ft. And the water available at the farm gate is about 70 million acre/ft. Where does the 34 million acre/ft go? It's not being stolen in India, it's been wasted in Pakistan," Qureshi said in the interview.

The confession comes at a time when Pakistan has expressed reservations about India building the a hydroelectric power project on the Kishenganga River which is a tributary of the Indus.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have taken up the water issue as a new focus. Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed had recently warned that there could be war over water-sharing between Pakistan and India.

India and Pakistan have had a slew of disagreements regarding the sharing of water from rivers common to both countries.

In 1984 India proposed to build the Tulbul Navigation Project on River Jhelum. India claimed that the project would make Jhelum navigable during the summer. But Pakistan has opposed construction saying that India can control the flow of water forcing India to stop work. Then in 1992 Pakistan had also raised objections to the now complete Baglihar dam that India has built over River Chenab. Pakistan has claimed that the Baglihar project is a violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 which guides water sharing between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan's latest complaint is against the hydroelectric power project that India is building on River Kishanganga project. Pakistan has claimed that any effort to influence the water flow of the Indus upstream will affect its plans of building a power project downstream.

Pakistani foreign minister lets 'water' secret out?- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos

Great. Reality speaks..fact is out from a pakistani minister.now ppl will say qureshi is a raw agent.
 
Karan, no one is disputing that the distribution of water in Pakistan (and India!) is inefficient. Most of the agricultural land in the Sub continent is cultivated via flood irrigation whereas moving to the more capital intensive and efficient drip irrigation would save a lot of water. Both countries could similarly line any remaining "kacha" canals to prevent losses in transit. This is no "secret" as the thread title indicates. And please understand that the inefficient use of water once it crosses into Pakistan is not an IWT issue, nor is it something Pakistan is blaming India for.

The reasons Pakistan is unhappy with India on the water issue have to do with violation of treaty articles on things like notification periods, the amount of water India can store in a facility vs. what is being stored and so on.

There are two completely separate issues and they should not be confused, nor should the distribution of water in Pakistan - efficient or otherwise - absolve or indict India with respect to claimed violations of the IWT. Let's please not obfuscate the issue at hand by bringing in valid but unrelated elements.

Not unrealated at all. One has led to the other. See, I am not refering to ongoing discussions between India and Pakistan on IWT where the officials from both sides are meeting regularly but to the unqualified rants by a section of Pakistani media and people like Hafeez sayeed who accuse India of stealing and use shortage of water in Pakistan as a proof. This interview debunks the logic of that evidence as it backs the old Indian response that the shortage of water in Pakistan is a result of poor water management and not India stealing water.
 
The reasons Pakistan is unhappy with India on the water issue have to do with violation of treaty articles on things like notification periods, the amount of water India can store in a facility vs. what is being stored and so on.

There are two completely separate issues and they should not be confused, nor should the distribution of water in Pakistan - efficient or otherwise - absolve or indict India with respect to claimed violations of the IWT. Let's please not obfuscate the issue at hand by bringing in valid but unrelated elements.

Alleged violations of the IWT. None of this has moved beyond being mere allegations. There is something else happening that is not very clear here. If Pakistan's only grouse with India was lack of compliance of notification periods, these could have been resolved at the commissioner's level without having to resort to mudslinging at senior levels as is being done now. The amount of water being stored is not something that India created overnight, so why the brouhaha now all of a sudden? There is certainly more here than meets the eye.
Would like to have your opinion on why you think this is.
 
It's for India, Pakistan to work out Kashmir, water issues: US

Washington, April 2 (IANS) Ruling out once again a US role in resolving either Kashmir or water issues between India and Pakistan, a senior official has said it was for the two countries to work things out.

'It's like water. Kashmir always comes up in everything,' Assistant Secretary Of State For South And Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake told reporters Thursday in a briefing about his recent trip to India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

'So it's very prominent. But again, that's something that the two countries are going to have to work out,' he said when asked if Kashmir issue had come up during his talks in the context of his objective to improve relations between the two South Asian neighbours.

Noting 'both countries have made quite a lot of progress in the period between 2004 and 2007,' he said the suggestion it's impossible for India and Pakistan to make progress is 'simply not true'.

Both 'countries have made significant progress during that period. And in fact, there's the blueprint for some sort of agreement on Kashmir, if they choose to endorse that,' Blake said. 'But again... that it's really up to India and Pakistan to decide how to move forward on that.'

On the water issue too, Blake said 'again, we're not going to get involved in bilateral issues related to water, because I think the World Bank is the best mechanism for that.

'But I do believe that if asked, that the United States could help both sides with respect to water supply and again how to make better use of the existing water supply, how to make more efficient use of it, how to increase water storage, rainwater harvesting, a lot of those kind of techniques,' he said.

Blake said he had told his interlocutors in Islamabad 'that if Pakistan believes that India is violating the Indus Waters Treaty, then Pakistan should avail itself of the opportunity to submit whatever grievances it has to the independent arbitration panel that has been set up by the Indus Waters Treaty.'
 
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