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WATER POLITICS

Via The Wall Street Journal, an article on India’s water-based politics with its neighbours.  As the report notes:

“…India’s water wars with her neighbors are starting to bubble again.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is supposed to sign a water agreement with Bangladesh Wednesday over use of the Teesta River, which rises in the Himalayas and cascades through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal before flowing in to Bangladesh. The agreement is a cornerstone of Mr. Singh’s visit to Bangladesh on Tuesday and Wednesday, the first by an Indian premier in 12 years, and a sign of improving relations between the testy neighbors.

But what should have been just a matter of crossing the is and dotting the ts has, at the last moment, turned in to a major renegotiation of the river agreement, thanks to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She’s reportedly angry about the terms of the agreement, which Indian media has said will share the waters from the Teesta equally between the two countries, and on Sunday canceled her planned appearance alongside Mr. Singh in Dhaka.

On Monday, Ranjan Mathai, India’s foreign secretary, told reporters that India’s government would not sign any water agreement with Bangladesh without the buy-in of West Bengal and other Indian states near the Bangladesh border. Mr. Mathai would not give details but it was clear from his briefing that India and Bangladesh have not at this late stage got a firm agreement on the use of rivers crossing their borders due to Ms. Banerjee’s stance.

This close to Mr. Singh’s visit to Dhaka, the lack of agreement on a key area of dispute could be embarrassing.  The trip is supposed to herald a new phase in relations between two countries that have often sparred in the past. (And it comes after Mr. Singh made this faux pas in comments about Bangladesh in July.)

Mr. Mathai seemed peeved with Ms. Banerjee’s decision to cancel her trip. He said her presence would have been “useful.” We will only know Wednesday if both sides have reached an agreement on water, he added.

Mr. Singh is expected to formally thank Ms. Hasina, whose Bangladesh Awami League government has made strides since coming to power in 2009 in stopping separatist groups from India’s northeast from using Bangladeshi territory to mount insurgent attacks on Indian forces. Other areas where agreements are expected include disputed land borders and trade. India runs a large trade surplus with Bangladesh, with two-way trade totaling $5 billion, and New Delhi has promised to open its markets to Bangladesh’s textile products.

But the issue of water, a major sticking point in relations in the past, doesn’t look like going away anytime soon.

The Teesta, like many rivers that India shares with Bangladesh, has caused bilateral tensions in the past. West Bengal relies on the waters for agriculture. Dhaka , though, has been worried by a spate of dam building on the river in Sikkim. (Local tribes  in Sikkim also have complained about the ecological impact of these dams on their communities.)

Meanwhile, over on its western border, India’s water disputes with Pakistan are getting worse. After Partition in 1947, both sides agreed to share six rivers that cross their international border. Under the terms of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, each country has the rights to the water from three rivers and can use the other side’s resources for run-of-river hydropower projects and irrigation as long as these don’t affect the flow of water to their neighbor.

Pakistan is claiming that India’s ongoing construction of a dam on the Kishanganga River in Jammu and Kashmir state is in violation of the treaty. Islamabad says the dam will affect its own downstream hydroelectric projects on a river which falls under its sphere of influence. New Delhi retorts the dam is run-of-river, meaning it will not affect the amount of water flowing downstream.

Islamabad last year took India to arbitration over the dam, the first time this power has been evoked under the treaty. A panel of seven experts – two appointed by India, two by Pakistan and three by the World Bank – are currently looking into the matter.

In June, Pakistan asked the panel to force India to suspend construction of the dam until it makes a formal decision. The panel is due to decide in coming days whether to grant Pakistan’s demand of a stay order on construction, according to a Pakistan official involved in the talks.