BLOG
September 19th, 2008
From The Press Trust of India, a report that Pakistan will seek arbitration by the World Bank over India’s alleged violation of the Indus Water Treaty India if New Delhi did not concede the breach of the pact. As the article noted:
“…Islamabad had claimed that, in “gross violations of the Indus Water Treaty,” India reduced the water flow to fill up the Baglihar dam lake in Jammu and Kashmir, causing to a “loss of agriculture” for farmers in Pakistan.
Pakistan would take up the issue with India on a water commissioner-level meeting likely to be held in New Delhi and would demand compensation for the agriculture loss to it, said a Daily News report today.
“We will demand compensation estimated at 0.2 million causes in water loss. If India does not accept the violation, Pakistan will go to the WB for arbitration,” official sources were quoted as saying.
India, on the other hand, has clarified that reduced flow in the Chenab river in Pakistan was a result of “very little” availability of water in a lean year.
“There was reduction because the flow was very little this year. We have also explained to the Pakistan High Commission on the situation,” Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon said in New Delhi yesterday.
Pakistan Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who chaired a high-level meeting, has directed the Pakistani Indus Water Commission chief to hold formal discussions with his Indian counterpart.
He claimed India had stopped 200,000 acre-feet water from August 1 to September 12 to fill the Baglihar Dam lake in Jammu and Kashmir.”