E-Paper
‘Humanitarian grounds’: India alerts Pak on floods
Monsoon flooding has already killed an estimated 800 people in Pakistan since June, a BBC report said on Monday.
New Delhi/Jammu : India has shared information about severe weather and possible heavy flooding with Pakistan out of concern for “public safety” as several cross-border rivers remain in spate, a person aware of the development said on Monday, requesting anonymity.
The bilateral Indus Waters Treaty, which India halted in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, continues to be in “abeyance” and no hydrological data are being exchanged under any mechanism of the pact, including the Indus Commission, the person said.
Information on chances of flooding and incessant rain in the coming days in provinces bordering India was conveyed through the Indian mission in Islamabad on Sunday “purely on humanitarian grounds”, the person cited above said. The Jal Shakti (water) ministry did not immediately respond to an email request for a comment.
Monsoon flooding has already killed an estimated 800 people in Pakistan since June, a BBC report said on Monday. Severe weather is set to “continue into early September’, raising risks of more disasters in Pakistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had said on Aug 21.
Heavy rainfall and landslides have caused loss of life and property on the Indian side, too, including in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. At least65 people were killed, over 100 injured,and 32 are missingafter flash floods hit Jammu’s Kishtawar on August 15.
Authorities overseeing dams and hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Baglihar and Salal projects over the Chenab, have opened gates to release excess water, as the India Meteorological Department continued to maintain an “orange alert”, denoting hazardous rainfall, for all districts of J&K.
Separately, an official of the Union Territory’s flood control department said India “alerted Islamabad” about possible flooding in Pakistan because of ongoing heavy rain in Jammu. “In view of heavy rains, we have opened the spill gates. During heavy rain, when water flow rates go beyond 3000 cumec (cubic metre per second), the gates have to be opened,” a second official manning the 900 MW Baglihar project said.
Another official at the Salal hydroelectric project said, given the amount of torrential rain occurring across the region, gates had been opened there too.
All major rivers, such as the Chenab, Tawi, Basanter, Ujh, Devika, Sahar and Tarnah in the Jammu region, which flow into Pakistan, are swollen, he said. Information conveyed to Pakistan by India also pertained to possible flooding in the Tawi, currently flowing at a dangerous level, a third official said.
Mazhar Hussain, a disaster management official in the Pakistani province of Punjab, told Reuters the information shared by India included a warning about a possible surge in the Tawi.
