Pressure sought on India for stopping water diversion
By Ihtasham ul Haque
ISLAMABAD, March 22: Construction of Baglihar, Kishan Ganga and Wullar dams on the Indus river system will create water shortage in Pakistan, a senior government official warned on Friday.
“The government must take necessary steps to ensure that any such ploy of creating water-related problems for Pakistan could be foiled,” said Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamait Ali Shah.
Inaugurating a one-day seminar here, he called upon the international community, particularly the World Bank, to force India not to create more water problems for Pakistan by constructing its three dams.
The seminar was organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
He said that Pakistan had objected on the Baglihar design and sought arbitration by a neutral expert under the auspices of the World Bank which was endorsed by the bank.
Many people, Mr Shah said, did not know that the Indian government blocked the canal water in 1948 that brought both countries to the brink of war.
It was only then the arbitration of the World Bank was commissioned. Pakistan did not agree with some initial proposal and the Indus Water Treaty took a long process to take a final shape.
Before and after the IWT, the Indians have constructed many small and big dams while the successive Pakistani governments did not take proactive measures, he said.
Mangla and Tarbela dams were constructed only as a result of the IWT.
AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan said societies and soils which did have running wealth of waters were bound to face catastrophes, starvation, industrial paralysis and social unrest.
“This negative phenomenon can take birth either from water shortage or from flawed management. We should take it as a timely caution, if not warning,” he said.
Pakistan Water Partnership chairman Sardar Mohammad Tariq said Pakistan was one of the most arid countries of the world with an average rainfall of only 250 millimetres.
