No record of river water flowing to Pakistan: Govt

Ashwini Shrivastava

New Delhi, Sept 6 (PTI) The government does not have any
record of "exact quantity of water" flowing from different
rivers from India to Pakistan.

The revelation came through a response of Ministry of
Water Resources to an Right to Information (RTI) query, which
said the "exact quantum" of waters flowing down to the
neighbouring country was not known.

"River Ravi flows from Jammu and Kashmir into Punjab
before entering Pakistan. The Beas confluences with the Sutlej
at Harike and the combined river Sutlej enters Pakistan. Some
tributaries or nallahs of these rivers cross over directly
from India to Pakistan. The exact quantum of waters flowing
down to Pakistan is not available," the Ministry said.

According to the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960, between New
Delhi and Islamabad, waters from eastern rivers -- Sutlej,
Beas and Ravi -- stand allocated to India and those from
western rivers namely Indus, Jhelum and Chenab largely to
Pakistan.

Exercising his Right to Information, Vivek Garg, an
advocate had filed an application to the Water Resources
Ministry seeking details on quantity of water from different
eastern and western rivers flowing to Pakistan.

He also sought the details of efforts made by the
Government of India to stop this water and expenditure
incurred on it.
India is under obligation to let flow all the waters of
Jhelum, Indus and Chenab and not permit any interference with
these waters except for certain specified uses, in accordance
with the Treaty, the reply said.

"The Ravi, Beas and Sutlej waters are allocated among
various states. Thein Dam, Pong Dam, Nangpal Dam and Headworks
at Ropar, Harike and Ferozepur serve to divert these waters
into various canal systems of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

"However, water being a state subject, the information
in respect of use of water from these projects on the
concerned rivers along with their financial details can be
requested or sought from the state government concerned," the
Ministry said.

The average annual flow of the rivers of Indus System is
207 billion cubic metre, including 166 bcm of western rivers.

"Millions of cubic metre water is illegally flowing from
our land to Pakistan every year. This water can easily be
utilised by thousands of farmers in Punjab and Haryana. These
two states administrations are doing nothing to stop this
precious water and letting their peasants suffer," Garg
claimed. PTI AKV
SDE