Pakistan has threatened to “chop off the hand” that tries to control its allocated share of water governed under an international treaty with India.
The two south Asian rivals geographically inherited six rivers originating in the river systems across the Himalayan range, the Tibetan plateau and the Pir Panjal range in the regions of Tibet, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in northern India.
After partition of both countries, the two sides signed one of the world’s most successful river sharing agreements to ensure water supply.
However, the Indus Water Treaty is now being tested in the ongoing diplomatic tussle owing to accusations by India against Pakistan of harbouring terrorism.
“We have declared that we will chop off the hand that tries to control our water and not merely announced it but also showed it in the past 1-1.5 years,” Pakistan’s climate change minister, Musadik Malik, said at a press conference on Tuesday, addressing reports of India saying it will not let a single drop of water flow into its neighbouring nation.
The minister said the issue was not merely about justice.
“Our military has also demonstrated that not only our water but even in air (warfare), we will cut off your hands,” he said, referring to the four-day aerial conflict between India and Pakistan in May last year, which left dozens dead and wounded.
"There is a tap being controlled by the prime minister of our neighbouring nation and he says he will not let even a drop of water flow into Pakistan," Mr Malik said.
He was referring to the remarks by Indian minister of water, CR Patil, earlier this month. Mr Patil said the Indian government was working to ensure “not a single drop of water” will flow into Pakistan after the 1960 Indus Water Treaty was suspended last year following an attack in Kashmir that killed 26 people. It pushed the two nations to the brink of a full-scale war.
The Pakistani official added that around 40 to 50 per cent of the country’s population depends on the water that allows agriculture in the region and that any obstruction to the water will affect Pakistan’s food security, employment and economy.
Brokered by the World Bank, the Indus Water treaty governs the six rivers of the Indus basin that flow between the two countries. The rights to the waters of the three western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, Chenab – went to Pakistan, and those of the three eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas, Sutlej – to India.
The water flowing from the Indian-origin basin is a lifeline for millions of Pakistanis relying on it for hydropower generation, drinking supply and irrigation for the agriculture-dominant country.
According to the treaty, India is required to allow 43 million acre-feet of water to flow into Pakistan annually. That makes up roughly 80 per cent of Pakistan’s total surface water, a crucial lifeline for its agriculture, cities, and hydropower generation.
The attack on a tourist vacation spot was termed as the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and shattered the relative calm in Kashmir, where tourism has boomed as an anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years.
Pakistan has accused India of weaponising water and said it will consider any attempt to change the flow of cross-border waterways as an “act of war”.
Ramping up the calls for justice on the issue, Pakistan is hosting an international conference on the Indus Water Treaty on Tuesday to discuss Pakistan’s “right on water” from these rivers and is bringing together experts on water and international law.
Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar will be delivering the keynote address, followed by local and international experts discussing the treaty’s legal foundations, regional security implications and conflict prevention mechanisms.
