Amara Hanif Recently an Indian union minister alleged that India has clogged the stream of its three eastern rivers to Pakistan, thus threatening its water supply. However this threat is useless because it’s mentioned under Indus Water Treaty that those three rivers are entirely for India’s use. Pakistan’s water share will not be affected by it.
Environmental lawyer Rafay Alam explained that Pakistan won’t be affected by the threat of stopping water flow. According to him it’s nothing more than a political ploy.
He clarified that the Indus Water Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 to put right and set the limits of the rights and obligations of both countries over the use of the Indus River. The water treaty has given India the restricted right to use eastern rivers — Ravi, Sutlej and Beas — while Pakistan can make use of the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
He further spoke that the Beas doesn’t even flow to Pakistan. It flows into the Sutlej and after that to Pakistan plus the Sutlej has been dried out ever since the 1960s.
Moreover, he stated that India is allowed to use water from the western rivers for household or agricultural purposes. The country can even make use of the water for partial hydro purposes as long as the flow to Pakistan is not affected. India is not allowed to store that river water.
India’s Prime Minister Modi had threatened to discontinue Pakistan’s water supply after 18 soldiers were killed.
Alam told that Modi made a very powerful statement that “blood and water won’t be allowed to flow together”.
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