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Understand Indus Waters Treaty
- The Indus system comprises the main Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. The basin is mainly shared by India and Pakistan with a small share for China and Afghanistan.
- With the partition of India in 1947, waters of Indus rivers system were also divided.
- The sharing formula, devised after prolonged negotiations, sliced the Indus system into two halves. The three ‘western rivers’ (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) went to Pakistan and the three ‘eastern rivers’ (Sutlej, Ravi and Beas) were portioned to India.
- India is allowed to use 20% water of the western rivers for irrigation, power generation and transport purposes.
- IWT granted 3.6 million acre-feet (MAF) of “permissible storage capacity” to India on the western rivers but due to poor water development projects, 2-3 MAF of water easily flows into Pakistan.
- It seemed equitable but India conceded 80.52% of the aggregate water flows in the Indus system to Pakistan and also gave Rs. 83 crore in pounds sterling to Pakistan to help build replacement canals from the western rivers.
- India conceded its upper riparian position on the western rivers for the complete rights on the eastern rivers.
- It was important to get the waters of the ‘eastern rivers’ for the Indira Gandhi Canal in Rajasthan (starts from the Harike Barrage, a few kilometers below the confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers) and the Bhakra Dam (on the Sutlej River in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh) without which both Punjab and Rajasthan would be left dry, severely hampering India’s food production.
- The World Bank, as the third party, played a pivotal role in crafting the IWT.
- The Indus Water Treaty has been brought up several times during geo-political tensions.
- In the aftermath of the attack on Uri Camp , the Indian Prime Minister said that the blood and water cannot flow simultaneously.
- India also threatened to cut off water supply to Pakistan from the Indus River System in 2019 when the suicide attack was carried out in Pulwama.
- Pakistan is likely to bring up its objections to three Indian Hydropower projects in the Chenab basin in Jammu and Kashmir in the upcoming session.
- The projects include the 1000 Megawatt (MW) Pakal Dul project, the 48 MW Lower Kalnai project and the 624 MW Kiru project, aside from other smaller Hydropower units of India in Ladakh.
- India has already said that all the projects are in full compliance with the Indus Waters treaty.
- The Indus river basin has six rivers - Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej; originating from Tibet and flowing through the Himalayan ranges to enter Pakistan, ending in the south of Karachi.
- The line of partition in 1947 aside from delineating geographical boundaries for India and Pakistan, also cut the Indus river system into two.
- Initially,India was to supply water to Pakistan in exchange for an annual payment according to the Inter Dominion Accord of May,1948.
- However, this agreement was soon disintegrated as both the countries could not agree upon common interpretations.
- Both the countries applied to the World Bank for funding of their respective irrigation projects on Indus and its tributaries in 1951 in the backdrop of the water-sharing dispute.It was then, when the Bank offered to mediate the conflict
- An agreement was reached between the two countries in 1960 after nearly a decade of negotiations leading to the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan.
- Allocation of rivers: The treaty allocated the three western rivers— Indus, Chenab and Jhelum to Pakistan for unrestricted use, barring certain non-consumptive, agricultural and domestic uses by India.
- The three Eastern rivers, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej were allocated to India for unrestricted usage.
- It means that 80% of the share of water or about 135 Million Acre Feet (MAF) went to Pakistan, leaving the rest 33 MAF or 20% of water for use by India.
- India is also allowed a minimum storage level on the western rivers.
- Indus Commission: It also required both the countries to establish a Permanent Indus Commission constituted by permanent commissioners on both sides.
- Functions: It includes serving as a forum for exchange of information on the rivers, for continued cooperation and as a first stop for resolution of conflicts.
- Hydropower projects: The Annexure D of the treaty allows India to build ‘run of the river’ hydropower projects, meaning projects not requiring live storage of water while Pakistan has rights over the waters of Jhelum, Chenab and Indus.
- It also provides certain design specifications which India has to follow for such projects.
- Dispute Resolution process: the IWT also provides a three step dispute resolution mechanism, under which issues can first be resolved at the commission or inter-Government level.
- Either side can approach the World Bank to appoint a Neutral Expert (NE) if that fails.
- The matters can be referred to a Court of Arbitration if either party is still not satisfied.
- IWT does not have a unilateral exit provision, and is supposed to remain in force unless both the countries ratify another mutually agreed pact.
- Pakistan’s Responses:
- The Pakistan leadership considers the sharing of the waters with India an unfinished business.
- Pakistan is not comfortable with the fact that India got away with the total flow of 33 million acre-feet on the eastern rivers, while it had to share the waters of western rivers.
- Being a lower riparian state, Pakistan’s scepticism of India allows it to increasingly politicise the issue. It maintains high troop levels and alertness around the canals on the eastern front, fearing that India will try to take control of the western rivers.
- Changing Perspectives in India:
- Every now and then, there is an uproar in India for abrogating the IWT as a response to Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism and tenacity.
- Abrogating IWT would require a number of politico-diplomatic and hydrological factors to be determined and also a political consensus.
- Terror attacks in Indian Parliament in 2001, Mumbai in 2008, and the incidents in Uri in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019 could have prompted India, within the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, to withdraw from the IWT. However, on each occasion, India chose not to do so.
- Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an international agreement governing treaties between states that was drafted by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.
- It was adopted in 1969 and entered into force in January 1980.
- It is because India respects its signature and values trans-boundary rivers as an important connector in the region in terms of both diplomacy and economic prosperity.
- However, in light of India being hesitant to abrogate the treaty, there have been suggestions to modify it.
- Currently, with a new set of hydrological realities, advanced engineering methods in dam construction and de-siltation, there is an urgent need to modify the treaty.
- Article XII of the IWT says that it “may from time to time be modified” but carefully notes “by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two governments”.
- Pakistan will see no merit in any modification, having already got a good deal in 1960.
- India’s best option, therefore, would be to optimise the provisions of the treaty.
- On the developments on western rivers, the permissible storage capacity on the western rivers needs to be urgently utilised. Out of the total estimated capacity of 11406 MW electricity that can be harnessed from the three western rivers in Kashmir, only 3034 MW has been tapped so far, which also needs to be looked into.
- Tulbul Navigation project on Jhelum, Ratle and Bagliha hydro projects on Chenab, Bursar hydroelectric project on one of the tributaries of the Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir are few of the projects to utilise the waters of western rivers.
- Bursar, once completed, will be India’s first project on the western rivers to have storage infrastructure.
- India has fast-tracked the work on Shahpur Kandi dam project, a second Sutlej-Beas link in Punjab and the Ujh Dam project in Jammu and Kashmir to fully utilise the waters of eastern rivers.
- Tulbul Navigation project on Jhelum, Ratle and Bagliha hydro projects on Chenab, Bursar hydroelectric project on one of the tributaries of the Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir are few of the projects to utilise the waters of western rivers.
- Every now and then, there is an uproar in India for abrogating the IWT as a response to Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism and tenacity.
- The role of India, as a responsible upper riparian abiding by the provisions of the treaty, has been remarkable but the country is under pressure to rethink the extent to which it can remain committed to the provisions, as its overall political relations with Pakistan becomes intractable.
- IWT is often cited as an example of the possibilities of peaceful coexistence that exist despite the troubled relationship between both neighbouring countries.
POSTED ON 22-02-2022 BY ADMIN
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