Top govt. panel takes stock of modification of Indus Treaty

Top govt. panel takes stock of modification of Indus Treaty

Subject: International Relations

Section: India’s neighbor

Context: A top government panel on Monday took stock of the ongoing modification process of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan. Matters related to the ongoing Neutral Expert proceedings pertaining to the Kishenganga and Rattle Hydroelectric Projects were also discussed

Concept:

Indus Water Treaty (IWT)

• The Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank.
• IWT was signed by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistani President Mohammed Ayub Khan in Karachi on September 19, 1960, after nine years of negotiations between the two countries.
• According to this treaty, three rivers: Ravi, Sutlej and Beas were given to India and the other three: Sindh, Jhelum and Chenab were given to Pakistan.

Rights & obligations under this treaty

• India is under obligation to let the waters of the western rivers flow, except for certain consumptive use.
• The treaty allocates Pakistan approx. 80% of the entire water of the six-river Indus system and reserved for India just remaining 19.48% of the total waters.
• India can construct storage facilities on western rivers of up to 3.6-million-acre feet, which it has not done so far.
• The IWT permits run of the river projects and require India to provide Pakistan with prior notification, including design information, of any new project.

Dispute redressal mechanism under the Treaty

• Article IX of the Treaty is a dispute resolution mechanism – graded at three levels to resolve a difference or a dispute related to projects on the Indus waters.

First level

• Either party has to inform the other side if they are planning projects on the Indus river with all the information that is required or asked for by the other party.
• This process is done at the level of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), created to implement and manage the goals of the IWT.
• If PIC is unable to solve the question in contention, the question becomes difference and goes to second level.

Second level

• The second grade is the World Bank appointing a neutral expert to resolve the differences.
• If a neutral expert cannot resolve the issue, the difference becomes a dispute and goes to third level.

Third level

• At this level, the matter goes to a Court of Arbitration (CoA) whose chair is appointed by the World Bank.

Why is this notice significant?

• This notice opens the possibility of India proposing major changes to the treaty and even the idea of altering it completely.
• India has not spelled out exactly what it wants to be modified in the Treaty.

• Under the treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all the waters of the three eastern rivers, averaging around 33 million acre-feet (MAF), were allocated to India for exclusive use.
• The waters of the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab – averaging to around 135 MAF, were allocated to Pakistan except for ‘specified domestic, non-consumptive and agricultural use permitted to India,’ according to the treaty.
• India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through the run of the river (RoR) projects on the western rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation, is unrestricted.