Pakistan on Thursday claimed India’s plans to build a river-linking project to divert water from Chenab would be a “grave violation” of the Indus Waters Treaty and other international laws.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi was reacting to questions about media reports that said India is planning to tunnel Chenab water to the Beas river, both part of the Indus basin.
India put the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in “abeyance” from last year. It was one of the punitive measures against Pakistan taken a day after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan.
“Yes, we have seen this report as well as the public tender document issued by the government of India that India has invited bids for the Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel project with the intention of transferring 1.9 million acre feet (MAF) of water annually from Chenab into the Beas system.
“Such an inter-basin diversion of water of the Chenab into the Beas system constitutes a grave violation of not just the IWT but also of the laws of treaty, particularly the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the broader framework of international water law, including the principles reflected in the 1977 UN convention on watercourses,” he claimed.
Under the IWT, Pakistan received the entire flows from the three western rivers, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus, while India had complete rights over the three eastern rivers, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi.
Andrabi also said that India's plan to silt flushing of the Salal Dam was not permissible under either the IWT or the 1978 Salal agreement.
The 690 MW Salal power station is a run-of-the-river project on Chenab in the Riasi district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The official also claimed that India had neither officially communicated nor shared any notice of these projects nor has it sought consultations in this regard.
However, on May 22, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) shared a letter from Indian officials with all relevant departments in Pakistan's Punjab province and directed them to be on high alert in view of a possible flood in Chenab river, claiming that India opened the spillway gates of the Salal Dam.
PDMA spokesperson Mazhar Hussain told PTI in Lahore that it received direction in this regard from the Agriculture Department, which in turn claimed to have received the communication from the Indian authorities regarding the increased water inflow from the Indian side between May 21 and 30.
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