BLOG
July 15th, 2010
Via AFP.com, a report on the continuing tension between India and Pakistan over water. As the article notes:
“…For Pakistani farmer Ghulam Sarwar, only war with India can overcome the water shortages parching his crops and drying up his profits.
His family owns 85 acres (34 hectares) in northern Punjab, traditionally the bread basket of Pakistan but where the country’s sizeable agriculture sector is finding it increasingly difficult to irrigate crops.
“This year water supply is less than last year. Crop earnings decline every year and water shortages have affected 50 percent of our agricultural business. The problems with India can only be resolved with war,” said Sarwar.
The 29-year-old says his family is forced to use costly motors to pump water in their village of Budhan Kay, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Lahore.“Our yields have declined up to 50 percent in the last two, three years. If things continue, agriculture will go down 75 percent in the next 10 years,” he said.
When the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan sit down Thursday for their first face-to-face talks since New Delhi called off a peace process after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, water will be one of the issues on the agenda.
Water availability in Pakistan has fallen from about 5,000 cubic metres per capita in the early 1950s to less than 1,500 cubic metres, said a 2008 report for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Growing population, rising demand, and snow and ice reductions in the Himalayas account for the shortages, which are compounded by inefficient irrigation, abysmal urban sanitation and unequal water rights, it said.
But many in Pakistan have accused arch-rival India, the powerful neighbour to the east, of stealing water. Whipping up anger, Islamist groups even called for a new jihad, or holy war, over water — something few took seriously.
“Only jihad can help get water released to Pakistan, so people should rise up,” said Jammat-ud-Dawa, a charity seen as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
India denies that it is unfairly diverting water. Indian analysts accuse Pakistan of trying to divert attention from water mismanagement and a crippling energy crisis, saying Islamabad should better share out water within Pakistan.
India and Pakistan say all issues are up for discussion on Thursday, but right-wing religious groups and farmers in Pakistan believe the dialogue will be useless unless Pakistan focuses on water and Kashmir.
Unreliable rains mean that agriculture in Punjab depends heavily on river water. Agriculture accounts for about 20 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product and millions of jobs depend on farming.
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty gave India and Pakistan three Himalayan rivers each and the right to hydropower and irrigation resources.
It established the India-Pakistan Indus Commission, which is supposed to resolve any problems that arise. If not, they can call on World Bank-appointed experts and arbitration.
That last happened in 2005, when India was told to make small changes to the design of another big dam to which Pakistan objected.
But Pakistan now wants court of arbitration over an Indian hydropower dam on the Kishanganga river that it says violates the 1960 treaty.
Hamid Malhi, co-ordinator of the Punjab Water Council that represents farmers, said urgent talks were required to appease Pakistani fears that Indian hydro-electric stations could run Pakistan’s rivers dry.
“If diversions like the Kishanganga project are not settled as it should be, then we have serious apprehensions that diversions from other rivers would also be made and precedents would be set,” he told AFP.
“The only way is to sit down and talk.”
Whatever happens, solutions will come only once India and Pakistan overcome their current hostility.
“We’ll be thankful if the Pakistani government takes up the water issue with India,” said Mohammad Sharif, a small-time farmer in a run-down village near the Wagah border crossing with India.
“There is no water. Seeds are costly. Fertilisers are beyond my means. Electricity bills are high and we can hardly meet our expenses,” he told AFP.