A 10-member panel from India will visit Pakistan to follow the 117th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission. Under the Indus Water Treaty, it is necessary to hold a meeting at least once every year ending March 31. (The two countries hold a yearly meeting to discuss alliance on the Indus River System, as defined under Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty ratified by both in 1960, with the intervention of the World Bank.)
The last time the commissions met was on March 23-24, 2021, when Pakistan’s delegation visited New Delhi, making the annual meet possible after more than two years. In 2019, the meeting was not held in the wake of Indo-Pak tensions in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, while in 2020, the pandemic derailed the annual meeting.
know about the Indus water treaty
It is a Water-Distribution Treaty, ratified in Karachi in 1960, between India (Pm Jawaharlal Nehru) and Pakistan (President Ayub Khan), brokered by the World Bank.
Under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all the waters of the eastern rivers the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi amounting to around 33 MAF (million acre-feet)(20%) annually is allocated to India for unrestricted use.
The waters of western rivers Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab amounting to around 135 MAF annually are largely for Pakistan(80%).
Know about the Permanent Indus Commission:
The Permanent Indus Commission is a bilateral commission of officials from India and Pakistan, established to execute and organize objectives of the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960.
The Commission according to the agreement must meet regularly at least once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan.
Functions of Permanent Indus Commission:
- to survey and report to the two Governments on any issue about the development of the waters of the rivers.
- to solve conflicts arising over water sharing.
- to organize technological visits to projects’ locations and critical river head works.
- to attempt, once in every five years, a general session of examination of the Rivers for verifying the facts.
- to take essential steps for the execution of the requirements of the treaty.
Objections raised under the treaty?
One of the biggest disputes that arose from Pakistan’s complaints to Indian projects on the western water bodies was over the Kishanganga Hydro Electricity Project (KHEP), which was initially a storage-cum-hydropower project.
Kishanganga is also known as Neelum, is a branch of the Jhelum river that originates in J&K and unites the river in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Progression of this issue
- The work for KHEP was begun in 2007, directing to construct a dam on the Kishenganga, diverting its water for a 330 MW hydropower plant in Kashmir’s Bandipora and bringing it back.
- The work for the program was supposed to be finalized by 2016, but before the construction started, Pakistan had put up complaints regarding the height of the dam, worrying it would mean increased water storage for India.
- Thus, India decided to modify the design by reducing its height from 97 meters to 37 meters.
- In 2010, Pakistan brought the issue to the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague, this time, challenging the diversion of water from Kishanganga.
- The Court provided its final decision in December 2013, providing India a green signal for the project, subject to conditions.
- Pakistan moved toward the World Bank three years later in 2016 and again in 2018, challenging the design.
- The project was then inaugurated by PM in 2018, despite endless objections from Pakistan.
The Indus Water Treaty has been brought up several times during geopolitical tensions. In the invasion of J&K’s Uri army camp in 2016, the PM of India said, “Blood and water cannot flow simultaneously,” Again in 2019, when the suicide attack was executed in Pulwama, India threatened to cut off the water supply to Pakistan from the Indus River System.
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