Of False Propoganda & Goebbelsian Lies: The Indus Water Treaty

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this extract from an article by Anupam Sarwaikar on the Indus Water Treaty (the full article can be downloaded here). In this extract, Anupam specifically talks about the current controversy, Pakistan’s false propoganda on the issue and deliberate distortion of facts. Please read and share widely.

*** “Current Water Crisis in Pakistan and False Propaganda” by Anupam ***

Pakistan blames construction of Hydro electric dams on Indian side for the depletion of water levels in Indus and Chenab.  The actual reasons for the water depletion are far and varied.

This article in Outlook by Huma Imtiaz sheds some light on the issue and reasons. Some excerpts:

Once-mighty Indus is now shrinking rapidly, courtesy climate change, bad irrigation practices and an exponential increase in population.

Environmental lawyer Rafay Alam says the depletion in Pakistan’s water resources is linked to the population boom and bad irrigation practices.

According to Alam, “Nearly 95 per cent of Pakistan’s water is used for agriculture. The irrigation water is put into canals. It’s an inefficient system designed in the 1860s. The canal is not lined and is just a trench; imagine the seepage that occurs. We’re losing up to 40 per cent of water to seepage, evaporation and theft.” Alam says farmers should switch to drip irrigation instead of the current flood irrigation system, which would help save water.

Like all Himalayan rivers, Indus and its tributaries also bring lot of sedimentation. Pakistan is already facing reduction in its power generation due to sedimentation. Decrease in size of Himalayan glaciers and changing weather patterns are partly responsible for the depleting water level. This phenomenon is observed in the rivers on the Ganga-Yamuna plains as well.

LET mastermind Lakhvi has recently claimed that India is waging a water war on Pakistan.  Pakistani media is full of anti India rhetoric on IWT violation by India. Given that India is not in violation of IWT, this rhetoric can only mean that either Pakistan is trying to justify the terror campaign it has unleashed against India by showing  that India is responsible for water crisis in Pakistan or Pakistani government is trying to put the blame of its own water mismanagement on India.

It is also possible that Pakistani government is trying to put the blame on India to divert growing unrest in other provinces of Pakistan against the misuse of Indus water by Pakistani state of Punjab  (E.g. refer this petition by state of Sindh).

India is not in violation of IWT. It should continue to address domestic power related issues and should not hesitate to move ahead with the projects which can improve the economy of J&K. This will also help uncover the fact that Pakistan isn’t looking for the welfare of Kashmiris but its own interest. Pakistani interests are usually the interests of its Punjabi-dominated Army.

Image of the Indus (Sindhu) river near Skardu (current day Pakistan), courtesy Wikipedia

Here are some points that underline how the Pakistani campaign is miles away from truth

• Nearly 95 per cent of Pakistan’s water is used for agriculture. The irrigation water is put into canals. It’s an inefficient system designed in the 1860s. The canal is not lined and is just a trench; imagine the seepage that occurs. Pakistan is losing up to 40 per cent of water to seepage, evaporation and theft.
• As against the storage entitlement of 3.6 MAF, India has built no storage so far. Of the 1.34 million acres permitted for irrigation, only 0.792 million acres is being irrigated.
• Out of a total hydroelectric potential of 18,653 MW, projects worth 2,324 MW have been commissioned and those for 659 MW are under construction.  India is fully entitled to build hydroelectric power plants under IWT.
• Those who are making allegations of water theft are completely ignoring the fact that this would require a storage and diversion canals network on a large scale. Such a network simply does not exist and figures nowhere in Indian plan.
• There has been disproportionate appropriation of water resources by Punjab at the cost of the other three provinces. The charge of India holding up water has been raised presumably to divert the responsibility for not distributing waters to the four provinces of Pakistan equitably.
• The real problem appears to be mismanagement of its water resources by Pakistan and changes in climate and weather patterns across the sub-continent coupled with the growing population in Pakistan.

*** End of Extract ***

To add to Anupam’s excellent note above, here are some factoids and additional references that can help the discussion/argument when confronted with absurd Pakistani claims.

From The Hindu:

• India had never hindered water flows into Pakistan even during the 1965 and 1971 wars.
• The Indus Waters Treaty…(has) assigned 80 per cent share of water of the Indus system of rivers to Pakistan.

From TimesNow:

One of the strongest The best evidence sof false propoganda PakistanThe Pakistani Foreign Minisiter Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said in an interview to a Pakistani channel, that his country’s water woes are because of their own wastage and not because of India.

Qureshi has confessed that Pakistan’s water woes are primarily due to wastage on its own soil and not because India is hogging water upstream.

“The total average canal supplies of Pakistan are 104 million acres/ft. And the water available at the farm gate is about 70 million acre/ft. Where does the 34 million acre/ft go? It’s not being stolen in India, it’s been wasted in Pakistan,” Qureshi said in the interview.

From What Water Wars? by Ramaswamy R. Iyer (former Secretary, Water Resources , and currently at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi):

There is no water issue…The Indus Treaty is in operation…

Any question or difference or dispute that arises in the course of such operation can and must be discussed within the ambit and framework of that Treaty…

The water issue is…a bogus issue manufactured by the army and the government for strategic and political purposes, and a massive confidence trick on the people of Pakistan. (please also see his rejoinder to a letter from Pawan Nair)

From Alibi for tension by K. Subrahmanyam (Senior Defense Analyst):

The water issue)… cannot be settled even if all the dams India has built are blown up, because it is a spurious issue meant only to perpetuate animosity of the Pakistani population towards India. Jehadi terrorism will seem to be more justifiable for a Pakistani on the water issue than Kashmir.

An imaginary grievance is being whipped up, on the Goebbelsian maxim that a lie repeated several times will acquire credibility. New Delhi should initiate vigorous steps to nip this poisonous campaign in its bud.

In short, the controversy that has been artificially generated by Pakistan around the Indus Water Treaty is a non-issue and a red-herring. The Pakistani establishment would do well to focus their energy and efforts on stabilising the country rather than propagating conspiracy theories against India.

Comments and thoughts welcome, as always.