India puts Indus Water Treaty on hold over Pakistan's non-compliance & terror links
A letter from the Jal Shakti Ministry highlights demographics shifts and security threats, stating that Pakistan breached key treaty provisions.
Confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers (Photo: Freepik)
Guwahati, April 26: Pakistan had breached the Indus Waters Treaty between both the countries by not responding to India's request for fresh negotiations. This fact came to light after Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Jal Shakti wrote a formal letter to her Pakistani counterpart Sayed Ali Murtaza.
The letter, a copy of which is available with The Assam Tribune, said that the Government of India had sent letters for modifications of the Treaty of 1960 under the provisions of Article XII(3) of the Treaty. The communications sent by India had cited fundamental changes in the circumstances that have taken place since the Treaty was signed.
The letter said that after the execution of the Treaty, the demography has changed and the need for accelerating the development of clean energy and other such issues also require fresh negotiations on the Treaty.
"The obligation to honour a Treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. But we have seen that Pakistan launched cross border terrorism targeting the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir," the letter add-ed. The letter also said that the resulting security uncertainties directly impeded India's full utilization of its rights under the Treaty. Apart from the other breaches committed by Pakistan, it also refused to respond to India's request to enter into negotiation as envisaged in the Treaty. The Government of India, hereby, has decided that the Indus Waters Treaty will be held in abeyance with immediate effect, the letter said.
The Treaty gave control over the waters of the three "Eastern Rivers" the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej located in India with a mean annual flow of 41 billion cubic meters to India, while control over the waters of the three "Western Rivers" - the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum located in India with a mean annual flow of 99 billion cubic meters to Pakistan. India got about 30 per cent of the total water carried by the Indus Rivers System located in India while Pakistan got the remaining 70 per cent.
The Treaty was signed by then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan in Karachi on November 19, 1960. The treaty is related to sharing of water of the Indus river and its tributaries by the countries and the World Bank played a key role in signing of the Treaty.
The Treaty allowed India to use the water of Western Rivers for limited irrigation use and unlimited non-consumptive uses such as power generation, navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc.
It lays down detailed regulations for India in building projects over the Western Rivers. The preamble of the treaty recognizes the rights and obligations of each country for the optimum water use from the Indus Rivers System in a spirit of goodwill, friendship and cooperation. Experts feel that Pakistan will face severe water crisis after India decided to keep in abeyance the Treaty after the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, in which 26 civilians were killed.