Indus Water Treaty talks begin in Islamabad

India and Pakistan discussed problems relating to Indus Basin at the two-day Indus Water Commission meeting which began in Islamabad today after a gap of nearly two years.

The 10-member Indian delegation led by Indus Water Commissioner P K Saxena held a closed door meeting with the Pakistani side which was headed by Mirza Asif Saeed.

Prodded by World Bank, Indus Water Treaty was brokered in 1960. The Indian delegation is headed by P.K. Saxena while Mirza Asif Saeed is leading the Pakistani team.

Highlights :

• 1960 treaty that has survived two full-scale wars.

• Govt. looking into ways of making optimum use of three of the rivers governed by Pakistan under the treaty – Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

• The deal was signed between India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s president General Ayub Khan after World Bank-brokered negotiations that lasted almost a decade.

• Control over the three eastern rivers – the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej – was given to India while the three western rivers went to Pakistan, unrestricted.

• India can use only 20 per cent of the water of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab which flows through it first, for irrigation, transport and power generation.

• India and Pakistan have managed their shared river waters quite amicably, thanks to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

• The Treaty, which came after a decade of World Bank-brokered negotiations, classified the six rivers of the Indus system into ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ rivers. Sutlej, Beas and Ravi were eastern; Jhelum, Chenab and Indus were western.

• The Treaty gave India full rights over the waters of the eastern rivers, while it had to let the western rivers flow “unrestricted” to Pakistan.

• India could use the waters of western rivers as well, but only in a “non-consumptive” manner. It could use it for domestic purposes, and even for irrigation and Hydropower production, but only in the manner specified in the Treaty. With the eastern rivers, India could do as it pleased.

• A Permanent Indus Commission was established to implement the Treaty. Each country has an Indus Commissioner, and they meet regularly – to exchange information and data, and to settle minor disputes.

• More than 110 rounds of meetings, held alternately in India and Pakistan, have taken place so far.