PM to chair crucial meet on Indus water treaty today

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a high-level meeting on Monday to look into the pros and cons of revisiting a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a high-level meeting on Monday to look into the pros and cons of revisiting a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan that survived their frosty ties and three wars between them.

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The Indus water treaty of September 19, 1960, between India and Pakistan is one of the most liberal water-sharing pacts in the world.

“The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi will be looking at the pros and cons of the pact,” senior government officials said.

Under the treaty that was signed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistan president Ayub Khan, the water of six rivers — the three eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and their tributaries and the three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and their tributaries — was to be shared between the two countries.

The waters of the eastern rivers have been allocated to India and New Delhi is under obligation to let the waters of the western rivers flow, except for certain consumptive use, with Pakistan getting 80% of the water.

Indus water treaty gives the lower riparian Pakistan more “than four times” of the water available with India.

Despite such liberal terms, Pakistan and India have sparred over water.

However, reviewing the treaty will be a difficult proposition for India. Pakistan’s all-weather ally China is the upper riparian state in case of the Brahmaputra, a river which flows into India’s Northeast.

Making any precedent in which an upper riparian state is overbearing can give hints to Beijing on the water-sharing issue which doesn’t augur well for India.