Indus Water Treaty: An Appraisal
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Sardar Swaran Singh and Sri NV Gadgil signed the Accord and for Pakistan the signatories were
Jenab Ghulam Mohammad, Jenab Shaukat Hayat Khan and Mia Mumtaz Daultana
22
.
As per this Accord India was required to resume water supply through the canals
originating at Madhopur and Ferozepur and Pakistan was required to pay for the cost of the water.
As per the provisions of the Accord, the Water Supply would continue till Pakistan finds alternate
means to compensate for the loss of water
23
. No Solution could however, be found post the
accord, because neither side was willing to compromise their respective stated positions and
negotiations reached a stalemate. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing that Pakistan
could do to prevent India from any of the planned schemes to divert the flow of water in the rivers
to areas which, in its assessment, needed these waters
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. Pakistan wanted to take the matter to the
International Court of Justice, but India refused, arguing that the conflict was between India and
It is worth appreciating that the partition of India indeed had internationalised the dispute.
Pakistan felt that its livelihood was threatened by the prospect of Indian control over the Eastern
Rivers, namely the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, of the Indus Drainage System (IDS) that fed water into
the canal system in the Pakistani portion of the basin, which was vital for the irrigation of its
cultivable land. It is relevant to note that at that point in time, the canal system to exploit the
waters of the Western Rivers, namely the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus of IDS, was not well
developed. On the contrary, India felt that it was her right to harness the water resources available
in that part of the Indus River Basin (IRB) which she had inherited consequent to the partition,
and that Pakistan’s insistence on its historical rights, in view of the new ground realities, was not
justified.
The Indian Argument was based on the ground situation as existing in IRB during early
part of the decade of the 1940s. In this context, India, using the 1941 Census, claimed that
although 21 million people lived in Indian Punjab and 25 million people lived in Pakistani Punjab,
yet, out of 105,000 km
2
irrigated annually in the IRB, less than 20 percent or 21,000 km
2
was
meant for the East Punjab territory. This imbalance needed correction. Therefore, India now
wanted to correct the situation by establishing its own claim to the waters of Eastern Rivers
25
.
Another relevant aspect in the entire consideration was that Pakistan was missing the point that
the geography of partition was such that not all the sources of rivers of the IRB were in India.
Rivers Indus and Sutlej had their origin and sources in China; Kabul River, a Western tributary,
had its origin in Afghanistan, and only Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Beas originated in India. This
made China and Afghanistan becoming Upper Riparian States in cases of Rivers Indus, Sutlej and
Kabul respectively, with attended implications for the availability and control of the water for the
lower riparian states. Thus the insistence of both India and Pakistan that the dispute was bilateral
was flawed from the very inception.
In 1948, David Lilienthal, formerly the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority and
of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, visited the region to write a series of articles for the
Collier’s magazine. Lilienthal had a keen interest in the sub-continent and was welcomed by the
highest levels of both Indian and Pakistani governments. Although his visit was sponsored by
22. Extracted from the Media Centre of the Ministry of External Affairs uploaded on https://mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?
dtl/5198/InterDominion+Agreement+on+Punjab+Canal+Waters
23. An internet upload on www.internationalwaterlaw.org/documents/.../punjab-canal.html: Inter-Dominion Agreement Between the
Government of India and the Government of Pakistan, on the Canal Water Dispute Between East and West Punjab.
24. What Indus water treaty means By Dr Adam Nayyar, DAWN Archived May 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
25. Gulhati, Indus Water Treaty: An Exercise in International Mediation, p-59.