Pakistan’s impending water wars

Pakistan handed over a “non-paper” to India on water sharing at the bilateral Foreign secretary level talks held in New Delhi on February 25 .But the Indian officials allege this non –paper is nothing but a ploy by Pakistan Army to whip up bilateral tensions over water sharing issue to consolidate their grip over the country at a time when provinces within Pakistan are fighting over water sharing .So much so that provinces have threatened “water wars” with each other . The waters of the Indus basin are regulated within Pakistan by the Indus river System Authority (IRSA) ,which itself was created by the inter-provincial Water Accord of 1991 . Sindh regularly accuses Punjab of not providing it with its share of water. Punjab, on the other hand, claims that it gets nothing more than its rightful share of water under the Water Accord.Last couple of meetings of IRSA has witnessed heated arguments among Sindh ,Punjab , and Balochistan provinces over water sharing .The Army is encouraging a campaign that Pakistan was facing water shortage due to India ,according to Indian officials .According to reports reaching here Pakistan’s Punjab province ,which has been getting the majority of Indus waters so far ,is on war path with Sindh and Balochistan provinces which have claimed that Punjab have denied the latter adequate share of waters and for undertaking Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Pinjad link canals projects .Sindh has reservations on the Chashma-Jhelum project .Sindh has in fact demanded that Punjab give up its Chashma-Jhelum project and any other future projects on Indus river. Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani has been asked to intervene and address such issues through an executive order. Meanwhile ,Punjab has sought the federal government’s intervention to get more water from the Indus to meet its target of wheat production .That India is not to blame for Pakistan’s water crisis is understood from none other than Pakistan’s Water Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf who told the National Assembly last month that India was within its rights to build dams on Jhelum and Chenab rivers . According to Pakistan’s water expert A N Abasi , “If the process of stealing Sindh’s water did not stop,then there would be no option but to wage a war.” Expressing similar sentiments ,another water expert Nazir Memom pointed out that Punjab had constructed 16 barrages,2 dams and 2 canals forcibly and that the province was taking Sindh’s water. India has rights over the three eastern rivers (Ravi ,Beas ,Sutlej) ,while Pakistan has rights on three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum ,Chenab ) ,according to the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between the two countries on six rivers. In the non-paper, Pakistan asked New Delhi to give full and timely communication on new power-generation plants and irrigation work taken up by India on the western rivers. But Indian officials point out that all information about 33 hydropower projects on the Chenab,Jhelum and Indus rivers have been provided to Islamabad and water used for irrigation was within the permissible limit.