Zofeen T Ebrahim
The Third Pole
August 29, 2014
If nothing else, the recent three-day talks between experts from Pakistan and India, organized by the Pakistan Indus Water Commission (IWC), over the issues raised by the design of the Kishanganga dam in India, has made it perfectly clear to both sides that instead of going into unending and costly international arbitrations, they should find a middle way and work out their differences.
The run-of-the-river hydroelectric project on the Kishanganga river – which flows into the Jhelum river, a part of the transboundary Indus river basin – has been objected to by Pakistan many times. Under the terms of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between the two countries, Pakistan took the issue to an international arbitrator, to little avail, as India proved it was sticking faithfully to terms of the treaty.
“We have knocked on the door of the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) and let me tell you it’s not an easy recourse; the judicial procedures are painful and at the end of it you get just a fraction of the fruit you were been expecting,” Mirza Asif Baig, Pakistan’s commissioner of the Indus Water Commission told thethirdpole.net soon after the August 24-26 talks in Lahore. Terming the talks “concrete” and “some movement forward”, Baig said Pakistan had raised certain objections to the dam’s technical aspects of design like “deep gated spillway, excessive pondage and height of free board” which India has agreed to look into.
“The talks seem to be on a sound footing. Both sides had done their homework and appreciated each other’s point of view,” he added. The two teams will meet again in two months in New Delhi, after Pakistan has undertaken two visits to hydropower projects Maira and Kishanganga in India. The commissioner said the Pakistan team was going “to witness first-hand the genuineness of the situation and the constraints and justifications put forward by India.” The design of the Kishanganga dam to be built for the Kishanganga hydropower in India and the Neelum-Jhelum project in Pakistan side – both on the same river, called Neelum in Pakistan and Kishanganga in India – have been a bone of contention between the two countries after India began construction in 2008-09, although research on the projects had begun in the 1990s.
“The interaction has been long and over the years designs for both projects have been modified,” said Baig, who has been involved in the bilateral meetings as advisor since 2000.
The dispute over the 330 megawatt Kishanganga power plant – some 160 km upstream of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir – has arisen over the way the two governments interpret the IWT, which provides a legal framework and guidelines for sharing waters of the Indus basin. The use of the eastern rivers (Sutlej, Beas and Ravi) has been allocated to India, while Pakistan is entitled to unrestricted use of the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab). By diverting water from one tributary of the river to another (which will change the course of Neelum river by 100 km), Pakistan says India violates the treaty; on the other hand, India maintains the diversion is well within the provisions of the treaty.
According to the IWT, India can build run-of-the-river dams to produce electricity as long as it does not store water or interfere with or control the flow of the western rivers. Many in Pakistan contend that India’s hydroelectric project would greatly reduce water flow in the Neelum river and affect Pakistan’s 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum project.
Asked about this, Baig said, “Yes it will, but only to the extent that Pakistan will get between 15 to 20% less water and (this will) affect the generation of power by not more than 10%.”
The changed course of the Neelum may affect the biodiversity of the Neelum valley, say environmentalists. “Diversion will wreak havoc on the environment of the valley,” said Sardar Javaid Ayub, the head of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir wildlife and fisheries department to the English daily Dawn. “Temperatures in the upper reaches of the river fell to sub-zero in winter and in case of diversion, a 20-25km stretch of the river would be frozen and all aquatic life, micro and macro organisms would become extinct.”
But water specialist Daanish Mustafa disagreed. “There is considerable drainage within Pakistani Kashmir so it is unlikely the valley will dry up completely. In winter months of course it is inevitable that the flows will be a lot less than what they are in summer.” While acknowledging that in winter the impact “may be pronounced”, Baig assured that as per the 2013 ruling of the ICA, it is mandatory upon India to maintain nine cubic metres per second (cumecs) of water in the Neelum at all times. Therefore, he did not see an adverse effect on biodiversity.
“Whenever water is disturbed upstream [in this case by India], it will affect the link downstream [Pakistan],” said Simi Kamal, another water expert. “There is a price to be paid and cost associated with such projects but if we can rise above the differences and sort them out in the spirit of cooperation, we can share the benefits of the river.”
Kamal is optimistic that all kinds of solutions are possible if only countries would move from “owning” to “sharing” natural resources. “The benefits of sharing are so much better,” she pointed out, suggesting that electricity generated by the Kishanganga power plant be shared between the two countries.
Compared to extensive coverage of the August 24-26 talks in the Pakistani media, there was hardly any attention paid to it by their counterparts in India. The lone report quoted the Indian delegates as saying that the talks had ended inconclusively. Back in New Delhi, one delegate said he was confident that the matter would now be resolved bilaterally within the purview of the IWT.
