Water: an Economic Resource Conflict between India and Pakistan

The Indus River Basin is the one of the largest basin in the world with a length of 3000 km and has a drainage area of 1 million square km. The river originates in the Himalayan ranges of Tibet and flows through both Indian and Pakistani controlled Kashmir. 56% of Indus Basin falls in Pakistan and covers 70% of the country (Faruqui, 2004). In Pakistan, forty million acres of land are irrigated using hundred million acre feet of water annually (James, 2000). 90% of Pakistan’s agricultural output is dependent upon irrigation and Pakistan earns approximately a quarter of its GDP from agricultural sector.

At partition a standstill agreement was signed between the two nations in which water sharing was decided on the basis of the Punjab Irrigation Act of 1873 and Sindh Irrigation, 1879. However disputes over water sharing were still rising between India and Pakistan. Keeping this in view the World Bank offered its good offices to both countries in 1954 advocating in reaching to an agreement on technical basis. In 1960 both India and Pakistan agreed upon the twelve articles and eight annexure of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). IWT has survived three wars: 1965, 1971 and 1999 between India and Pakistan. The treaty has given full rights of India over rivers: Sutlej, Beas and Ravi before they flow downstream into Pakistan whereas three western rivers: Indus, Jhelum and Chenab were allotted to Pakistan.

India’s immediate problem is not water for agriculture but water for generating hydro-electric power. For a 7% annual growth in GDP India needs to increase its power supply by 10% every year. 25% of 113000 mega watts of Indian installed capacity comes from hydro-electric sources. India is currently tapping only 23% of its hydro-electric potential (Miner, 2009). Demand for energy in Jammu and Kashmir is forcing India to develop hydro-electric projects on the western rivers. Due to the frustration of not having enough energy in Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in March 2003 conceded a declaration asking the Indian government to reassess the Indus Water Treaty (Miner, 2009).

Water is essential for Pakistan’s agriculture as a quarter of its GDP is dependent on agriculture. The agriculture sectors employees 43% of Pakistan’s labor force (Bibi, 2010). The water flow in the Indus River Basin is not only affected by climate changes but the major cause is also human intervention with the ecological system. Due to rapid deforestation in the upper altitudes of Indus Basin, carbon levels are rising as trees are being cut. This is not only making the glaciers melt faster but have also increased siltation in the system (Faruqui, 2004).

To manage the changes in the water regime both India and Pakistan have planned to build additional projects on the rivers of the Indus Basin. Pakistan have not been able to start construction on many dam projects due to politics over water between Punjab and Sindh provinces. However India is in the process of building around 100 water projects on the rivers. India is only entitled to construct run of river projects on the western Rivers which do not store water and nor do they can divert water as per the design parameters defined in the annexure of Indus Water Treaty of 1960. Two bones of contentions between India and Pakistan apart from many other projects are the Kishanganga and Baghliar hydro-power projects. Kishanganga dam was commissioned by the Government of India on river Jhelum whereas Baghliar dam was commissioned on river Chenab in 1992 (Iyer, 2005).

Pakistan referred the Baghliar dispute to Swiss neutral expert Raymond Latiffe but got nothing except lowering of dam height by 1.5 meters (Mohanty and Khan, 2005). To fill Baghliar dam, India stopped the water of river Chenab from August 19 to September 5, 2008 which resulted in Pakistan losing 1.2 million cusecs of water. This shortage of water cost Pakistan a loss of approximately 5 billion rupees in paddy crops whereas India is currently irrigating 800,000 cusecs of water of river Chenab. As per the treaty, India is entitled to withdraw water for irrigation for 64,2000 acres in addition to another entitlement of 70,1000 cusecs (Chandrasekharan, 2010).

Pakistan also plans to construct a 969 megawatt hydro-electric project on Pakistani site of Neelum-Jhelum River. As per the Indus Water Treaty and international law whoever completes the project first has the right over the water of the river. Pakistan claims that construction of Kishanganga on Jhelum River is against the article of the treaty, as the 90 kilometer diversion of Neelum River would turn Neelum valley and display around 600 thousand people. However India claims that the water after diversion would flow back into the Jhelum River without any change in the quantity of water entering Pakistan. The construction of Kishanganga would decrease the power generating capacity of Pakistan’s Neelum-Jhelum hydro-electric project by 20%. Pakistan planned to complete the construction of Neelum-Jhelum hydro-electric project by 2015 but had to revise its plans due to floods in 2010 and 2011 (Miner, 2009).

The Indus Water Treaty, an offshoot of neo-liberal institutionalism, is a document which lays down the rules of engagement and cooperation between both India and Pakistan over Indus River Basin. The lack of maintenance of dams, siltation, and decrease in aquifers is all linked to the inefficiency of the management teams. Unregulated population is also a major contemporary issue in the economy of Pakistan which should be regulated. India cannot claim over waters of Pakistan according to the treaty, the abrogation is not in the interest of both the countries. However, Pakistan needs to increase its capacity of storage just like India if it intends to save its people from water scarcity in the near future.

References:

- Faruqui, Naser I. “Responding to the water crisis in Pakistan.” International journal of water resources development (2004): 177–192

- James L.Wescoat Jr, Sarah J. Halvorson & Daanish Mustafa. “Water management in the Indus basin of Pakistan: A Half-century Perspective.” International Journal of water resources development (2000): 391–406. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713672507#preview>

- Mary Miner, Gauri Patankar, Shama Gamkhar & Davi J. Eaton. “Water sharing between India and Pakistan: A critical Evaluation of Indus Water Treaty.” Taylor And Francis, Water international (2009): 204–216. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02508060902902193>

- Iyer, Ramaswamy R. “Indus Treaty: A different view.” Economic and Political Weekly (2005): 3140–3144. < http://www.epw.in/commentary/indus-treaty-different-view.html>

- Chandrasekharan, Dr. S. Chand. “The Indus Water Treaty-Its Dynamics and Reverberations.” South Asia Analysis Groups 19th February 2010; 34–65