Indus Waters Treaty and Kashmir Conundrum: Water and Nationalism
J. Catherine
Head of Research & Publication, MRC, Pune
Key Highlights
- Since the inception of the IWT, Pakistan’s continual objections to projects on the western rivers have had serious impacts on the political economy of J&K.
- The population growth, energy crisis and climate change has made them even more vocal in denouncing the treaty.
- Water nationalism has grown in recent years as the supply-demand gap in India and Pakistan has widened.
- The IWT prohibits the state from storing or diverting water for irrigation purposes.
After decades of touch and go in Kashmir’s hydropower development, the Indian government has shifted strategies and begun aggressively sanctioning approvals and clearances undermining Pakistan’s disapproval. This does not come as a surprise since the current government has been implementing assertive policies in order to emerge as a regional leader. Since the inception of the IWT, Pakistan’s continual objections to projects on the western rivers have had serious impacts on the political economy of J&K. The terms of the treaty had been widely contested in both the countries since its inception. In India, the riparian co-states have expressed various degrees of dissatisfaction with the treaty and have demanded renegotiation of the terms to obtain an equitable access. Kashmir has repeatedly voiced its woes about the IWT being discriminatory. The population growth, energy crisis and climate change has made them even more vocal in denouncing the treaty. Kashmir’s Mufti Mohammad Syed and other political leaders have urged Pakistan to help Jammu and Kashmir’s economic growth by not objecting to hydropower projects in the state under the provisions of the Indus Treaty.
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J. Catherine
Head of Research & Publication, MRC, Pune
J. Catherine is a Research Fellow at MRC. She is performing her research on Indus Water River system at MRC.