Water Politics in South Asia: A Critique of Indus Waters Treaty, 1960.

Description

Pakistan and India are two neighboring nuclear powers of South Asia. Since their independence in 1947, there has a water conflict between these two states. A water treaty was signed between, in 1960 with the help of World Bank, to address this conflict which divided six conflicting rivers in to three Eastern and three Western rivers by allocating Eastern rivers to India and Western rivers to Pakistan. As India is upper riparian, she was given absolute right to use the waters of Eastern rivers. At the same time, she was also allowed to use the waters of of Pakistani (Western) rivers for non-consumptive use. For this purpose she was allowed to build the run-of-the-river limited storage for the purpose of power generation and navigation. The treaty gives very minute details regarding these building of projects and their procedure. After signing of treaty in 1960, India has/been built/building various hydro-electric power plants/storages on western rivers. The building of these plants/storages by India has become controversial between India and Pakistan. The Western rivers which have been allotted to Pakistan by the treaty provide more that 90% water to Pakistan. Pakistan is of the view that India is violating the provisions of the treaty while constructing the plants, as a result downstream water is constantly reduced. On the other hand water scenario in both of the states, India and Pakistan, is becoming worse. There are a lot of issues of water management domestically in both of the states. This book highlights the sensitive issue of water between two nuclear powers. It explains that how, if not addressed, the issue ma be converted in to a war which ultimately may turn into a nuclear war. The book also recommends solutions of the issue to both of the states, India and Pakistan.