Sandeep Dixit
New Delhi, 22 July
The government should renegotiate the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan as the present time important issues like climate change, global warming and environmental impact assessment were not taken into account when the agreement was signed in 1960.
“There is a need to renegotiate the treaty to establish some sort of institutional framework or legislative framework to address the impact of climate change on the availability of water in the Indus basin and other challenges that are not covered under the treaty, A parliamentary committee has recommended.
In response, the government stated that the treaty could only be amended jointly by both governments. It also said that the recommendations of the committee in this regard have been shared with the Ministry of External Affairs as the issue pertains to foreign policy.
The government should also expedite projects like Ujh and Shahpur Kandi and also take a look at the Harike barrage to provide adequate water to the Rajasthan feeder and Sirhind feeder canals, which receive only a third of the water while the rest of Pakistan flows in. The Seventeenth Action Taken Report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources was tabled in Lok Sabha on Friday.
It also noted the inadequate work done to exploit the waters of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab (Western rivers), which largely flow into Pakistan.
For example, according to the Indus Water Treaty, India can create up to 3.6 million acre-feet (MAF) of water storage capacity on the western rivers but no storage capacity has been created yet.