India Should Abrogate Unfair Indus Water Treaty
The Indus Water Treaty is a water sharing agreement between India and Pakistan signed in 1960 dividing the Indus basin into six rivers. The waters of eastern rivers were to be used by India while the Western Rivers were given to Pakistan. The deal was brokered by the World Bank. Of the total 168 million acre-feet of the three allotted rivers, India’s share of water is 33 million acre-feet or nearly 20%. India uses nearly 93-94% of its share under the Indus Waters Treaty. The rest of the unutilised water goes to Pakistan.
Through the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) signed some 62 years back between Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani Military dictator General Ayub Khan, India uses just 19.5% of its share of the total water flow, while giving Pakistan nearly 80% water from the Indus rivers.
This decision of the then Prime Minister Nehru being overly generous to Pakistan has been criticised over the years as Pakistan kept exporting terror to India and killing hundreds of innocent Indians over the last three decades and despite this, successive governments carried on with this treaty. But now a demand for abrogation of this treaty has been gathering momentum. The “unfair” Indus Water treaty was a historical blunder and it is time that India corrects this blunder to ensure it receives a fair share of water from the Indus rivers, by making adequate amendments to the treaty.
In fact Pakistan has already violated provisions of the treaty by constructing a dam in Mirpur in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir territory with the assistance of the World Bank. Also this dam was constructed with the assistance of the World Bank. How could the World Bank fund this project when the same bank says that they would not fund projects in disputed territories?” This ground is good enough for India to annul the treaty and make Pakistan pay heavily for export of terror into India.
This abrogation should take place as a unilateral action and after a deliberate announcement inside the Parliament and a letter to the World Bank. Pakistan must realise that if they do not stop exporting terror to India, India has the right to stop the water flow into Pakistan. Blood and water cannot flow together, said Major Amit Bansal, Retd an expert.
The unequal water distribution treaty has caused a perennial problem of water for the states like Punjab, Haryana and Delhi where all these three states depend on the water flow from the Indus basin.
India can walk out of the treaty under Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties which permits it in the event of a fundamental change of circumstances under which the treaty was concluded. The fundamental change being Pakistan’s reprehensible behaviour, as demonstrated by its export of terror and complete absence of any display of goodwill, friendship and cooperative spirit on the basis of which the treaty is predicated. It may be noted that even in the operation of the treaty, Pakistan has not shown any cooperative spirit or goodwill and has, over the decades, stalled many Indian projects as reported in a newspaper.
Uttam Kumar Sinha, Head of the Non-Traditional Security Centre, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and author of the book Indus Basin Uninterrupted, told The Sunday Guardian that the IWT does not have an exit clause, but the treaty survived because India wanted to continue with it. “The Treaty has no exit clause, in other words there is no provision for abrogation. It, however, mentions modification of the provisions (Article X) by another duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two countries. Given the fractious politics it is neigh impossible to achieve renegotiation. Pakistan will never renegotiate having got a favourable deal in 1960. That the Treaty has survived is because India has allowed it to function. India has allowed it to function because there is no strategic advantage in disrupting the treaty.” Sinha told this newspaper.
