No surplus water flow to Pak

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 21

India today announced that it will stop its share of water in the Indus basin rivers from flowing to Pakistan as retribution for its complicity in the Pulwama attack that killed over 40 CRPF personnel. It has already withdrawn the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status granted to Pakistan and imposed a 200 per cent duty on Pakistani imports.

“We will divert water from eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab,” Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari said here today.

India had first unsheathed the water weapon after the Uri attack in 2016 when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced a review of the Indus Waters Treaty. Since then, India has covered some ground. Last September, Gadkari had said, “Some portion of our share still goes to Pakistan. The first thing we will do is arrest the (excess) water and take it to Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi.”

In November last year, the Centre decided to restart the Tulbul navigation project in J&K. It also approved construction of the Shahpur Kandi dam project on the Ravi and the second Sutlej-Beas link (both in Punjab) and accelerated work on four dams — Pakul, Sawalkot and Bursar on the Chenab in Himachal and the Ujh dam project on the Ravi in J&K.

These projects will be declared national projects so that funds are not a hindrance. The Shahpur Kandi project is expected to cost about Rs 3,000 crore with Punjab unwilling to foot the bill. Even if the funding issues are clinched, it is doubtful if all projects will take off because some are stuck in inter-state disputes.

Technically, it will take well over a decade to put the infrastructure in place.

India will also be careful about not giving a signal about scrapping the Indus Waters Treaty because it shares river waters with Bangladesh and Nepal too.

The treaty has stood the test of time. India can use 20 per cent of the total water carried by the Indus but utilises only about half of it. — TNS

Unsheathing the water weapon

• Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by World Bank, was ratified in 1960

• Water of 3 tributaries — Sutlej, Beas, Ravi — allotted to India

• Water of Chenab, Jhelum and Indus allotted to Pakistan

• India can use 20 per cent of Indus’ water

• No water wars for around 60 years; all disputes resolved through legal means

• First review in 2016 after the Uri attack