Business Recorder Editorial Jan 16, 2019

Better sense at last

India has finally seen fit to allow an inspection visit by a three-member delegation from Pakistan headed by Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah. The Pakistani experts will inspect the 1,000 MW Pakal Dul and the 48 MW Lower Kalnai projects in the Chenab basin on January 28-31. Mr Shah said the general inspection tour will not be limited to the above two projects but may also visit the contentious Ratle hydropower and other projects in the Chenab basin. The delayed visit comes after the 115^th meeting of the Permanent Commission for Indus Waters (PCIW) held in Lahore on August 29-30, 2018 had scheduled this inspection visit on October 7-11, 2018. That visit was postponed by the Indian side on the basis that local government elections were about to take place in the area, followed by the winter session of the Indian parliament. The Pakistan Commissioner’s subsequent reminders to his Indian counterpart, Pradeep Kumar Saxena, to reschedule the visit for November or December 2018 had failed to bear fruit. The Lahore PCIW meeting had not only agreed to the inspection of the two projects above but also another contentious project, Kishanganga in the Jhelum basin, at a later stage. Reciprocally, Pakistan had agreed to allow India to inspect the Kotri Barrage after September, although what good that would do, other than being a ‘sweetener’, is beyond comprehension. Now it seems better sense has prevailed and India has allowed the inspection visit to go through.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is one of those rare agreements between Pakistan and India that has stood the test of time since it was signed in 1960 and weathered the ups and downs in the relationship between the two South Asian neighbours. The scheduled visit is a good breakthrough, and raises hopes that a similar spirit will infuse other contentious water issues between the upper and lower riparian. The IWT allocated the waters of the three western rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, to Pakistan and the three eastern rivers, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, to India. The IWT allowed India to construct hydropower projects on the three western rivers but not to dam their waters, which by right belonged to Pakistan. However, despite the IWT’s sterling record of managing differences and conflict between the upper and lower riparian, contentious issues have dogged the steps of the process over many years. For example, the Pakistani Water Commissioner has been demanding for many years the inspection of the Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai hydropower projects. Pakistan’s objections revolve around the pondage and freeboard of the Lower Kalnai, and pondage, filling criteria and spillway of the Pakal Dul project. It also has a long standing complaint regarding the design of the 330 MW Kishanganga storage and hydroelectric project on River Jhelum and the 850 MW Ratle hydroelectric project on the Chenab. Pakistan has approached the World Bank (WB) as the arbiter and guarantor of the IWT to appoint an arbitration court on these two projects, arguing their design is in breach of the IWT. India has countered this with the demand the WB instead appoint a neutral expert to arbitrate the dispute. The matter appears to lie in cold storage at the WB. Pakistan’s suspicions because of this experience and the breach of the provisions of the IWT for meetings between the Water Commissioners of the two sides twice a year to arrange mutual inspection visits of project sites and river headworks veer towards wondering if these tactics of delay are intended to create facts on the ground favourable to the upper riparian that then become difficult to reverse. The present breakthrough will go some way towards allaying some of these suspicions. International law and the IWT are very clear on the water rights of upper and lower riparians. Instead of getting bogged down in fruitless debates, delays and postponements of visits under the provisions of the IWT, both Pakistan and India’s interests would be better served by adherence to the IWT’s provisions and processes. This could also serve to ease the tensions that bedevil mutual relations.