ISLAMABAD, 29 July 2004 — Pakistan and India will resume talks for the first time in six years this week over a 19-year water dispute as nascent dialogue between the traditional foes inches forward. Officials from both sides will begin a two-day meeting in Islamabad today, a day later than originally scheduled, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. “The talks will now be held on July 29-30,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told AFP.
The Indian delegation, led by the secretary of the water resources minister, V.K. Duggal arrived here yesterday.
The talks are aimed at resolving differences over construction of a barrage begun by India in 1985 over the Jhelum River, which starts in Indian controlled territory but feeds Pakistan.
The water talks are part of the ongoing peace process started by the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals early this year. Islamabad says the Wullar Barrage, 30 kilometers north of Indian Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, violates a 44-year old water sharing treaty by affecting the flow of water and threatening irrigation and power projects downstream in Pakistan. The 1960 Indus Basin treaty divides the six rivers starting in or running through Indian-controlled Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The treaty gives India full rights over the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej rivers, while Pakistan has rights over the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers. Officials here argue that allowing India to control the flow of the Jhelum water through storage would pose a serious threat to Pakistan. “Our contention all along has been that (the Wullar Barrage) would negatively impact downstream irrigation, power generation and other water projects,” a government official told AFP, asking not to be named.
Pakistan wants India to scrap the project, Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. But India contends the barrage would help regulate the flow of floodwaters. Construction of the barrage was halted in 1987 following protests by Pakistan.
“The talks are resuming after six years,” Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Water Jamat Ali Shah told AFP.
Another dam on the Chenab River is also being challenged by Pakistan. Islamabad says construction of the Bagliar Dam, a 330-megawatt hydroelectric project, will affect water flows to Pakistan. India says the technical design of the project is well within the provisions of the treaty and national and international practices. The treaty forbids India from affecting the flow of the three rivers feeding Pakistan, but allows it to generate electricity from them. Both sides held talks on the Bagliar dam in June and reported progress toward an accord. The discussion on Wullar is part of the eight-point peace agenda agreed between the two governments early this year, Khan said.
