Even as India and Pakistan race to finish massive hydroelectric projects on shared Himalayan rivers, the Jammu & Kashmir government is trying to estimate how much money it has 'lost' due to the half-century-old Indus Water Treaty.
For the first time, the Jammu & Kashmir government has started a full-fledged process to quantify the losses it claims to have suffered due to the Indus Water Treaty, signed between the New Delhi and Islamabad governments in 1960. In June, the state body in charge of electricity, the Power Development Corporation (PDC), invited proposals from consultancies within and outside India to assess the treaty's impact. 'We have been arguing about the losses to J & K state due to the IWT but we do not have accurate figures available with us to substantiate our claim,' says Iftikhar Ahmad Kakroo, deputy managing director of PDC. 'So we sought bids from reputed consultancies around the globe to assess this loss on a scientific basis.' In fact, the state government's new moves are only the latest in a bilateral fight that is in the process of heating up significantly, calling into question the sanctity of the half-century-old agreement.
Post-Partition, water-sharing was a major source of contention for India and Pakistan. The issue was resolved with arbitration by the World Bank (then called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) that resulted in the Indus Water Treaty, which puts restrictions on how the two countries can use their water resources. Out of the six rivers in what is called the Indus basin, India has exclusive rights over the waters of three major waterways that flow through the plains of Punjab state before entering Pakistan: the Ravi, originating from Rohtang pass in central Himachal Pradesh; the Beas, also originating from central Himachal; and the Sutlej, which begins in Tibet. Pakistan, meanwhile, has rights to three large rivers that flow first through J & K: the Indus, coming from Tibet; the Jhelum (or Neelum, as it is referred to in Pakistan), originating in southeastern J & K; and the Chenab, which starts in Himachal.
Since it was signed, the treaty has withstood two wars and numerous other conflicts and confrontations – although not without frustrations. Many in J & K feel that the agreement restricts the state from fully exploiting its hydro resources, both for irrigation and for power generation. Experts say the state has a potential to generate some 20,000 megawatts of electricity, but so far has only managed around 1500 MW because the treaty disallows the state government from damming any of these three rivers.