Residents guide their buffaloes in a flooded area after monsoon rains and rising water levels in the River Chenab on the outskirts of Multan. Photo: REUTERS
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD:
Without hinting at Pakistan, India has released water into river Chenab where the water flow reached 58,300 cusecs on Monday. Officials claim that India emptied its dams deliberately to damage Pakistan’s wheat crop.
They claimed that India will now refill its dams, potentially reducing the Chenab’s flow to zero – a move described as “water terrorism” aimed at damaging wheat production.
India in May this year unilaterally suspended the Indus-Waters Treaty (IWT), a 1960 water-sharing agreement brokered by the World Bank, allocating three eastern rivers to India and three western rivers to Pakistan.
The three eastern rivers, which have a combined average annual flow of 33 million acre ft, are the Beas River, the Ravi River and the Sutlej River.
The three western rivers, which have a combined average annual flow of 135 million hectare ft, are the Indus River, the Chenab River and the Jhelum River.
Meanwhile, annual per capita water availability in Pakistan has declined due to rapid population growth, according to a report presented in the National Assembly by the Ministry of Water Resources on Monday.
Pakistan’s population has increased by 40 million between 2017 and 2023, resulting in a decrease of 154 cubic meters per capita in water availability.
By 2030, Pakistan’s population is expected to reach 288 million, and water availability per per capita is expected to decrease to 795 cubic meters annually due to continued population growth.
Per capita annual water availability has fallen to 679 cubic meters in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 760 cubic meters in Punjab; 1,169 cubic meters in Sindh and 928 cubic meters in Balochistan.
