This article from Pugwash online highlights the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue, the growing water demand in both the regions, the risk of water serving as a valuable resource giving rise to further conflicts in the region and the relevance and importance of developing new water sharing strategies as opportunities to resolve the conflicts between the two countries through resolving water scarcity issues and encouraging agricultural and overall development in Kashmir.
The article informs that Pakistan and India for their part have clashed over water issues since the 1947 partition. Rivalry over the Indus River resources has been a chronic source of heightened tension between the two states and with the issues intensifying, the possibility for interstate conflict is likely to increase. Beyond the practical realities of their explosive demographics, disputes over the Indus in particular and water in general have taken on a deeply emotional or symbolic nature, as matters of national or regional survival and identity.
Both countries face problems that include flooding or drought in multiple regions, inefficient and inadequate irrigation, inadequate supplies of clean water in both rural and urban areas, ground water depletion and contamination, lack of pollution control and treatment facilities, and insufficient and poorly maintained infrastructure.The 1947 partition put the headwaters of the Indus River in India and its lower basin in Pakistan, thereby setting the stage for battle over resource allocation because the partition had not provided for any agreed formula of how to share the Indus River system. Finally in 1960 both countries signed the Indus Waters Treaty.
The treaty ended in a permanent division of the river network into two separate systems and also provided for storage capacity on the western rivers and extensive irrigation works for Pakistan, limited aggregate storage capacity on the western river's single and multipurpose reservoirs for India, an elaborate system of mutual obligation by the two parties, and a permanent commission with representatives from both sides to maintain a cooperative arrangement for implementation.
While the Indus Waters Treaty has been viewed by many as a model for the peaceful resolution of international water disputes, it does not provide for joint development nor does it eliminate the grounds for conflict over water distribution between India and Pakistan. Reduced flow of the Indus in recent years has coincided with a rise in regional and interstate discord, a foreboding indication for the future.
Because of the limitations of the Indus Waters Treaty and the desperation for water on both sides, Jammu Kashmir has been stuck in a development rut that is largely responsible for the lack of stability and security that could play a critical role in the conflict’s resolution. Agreement on a joint development strategy for the Indus Waters Basin that would implement sustainable projects would thus be a major contribution to economic growth, which according to multiple sources is a top priority in securing peace for the region.
The article ends by arguing that an integrated development plan for the conservation and sustained management of the Indus Basin presents a powerful opportunity to open a new pathway to a negotiated settlement of the 60 year old conflict in Kashmir. The approach necessitates a plan jointly developed by Pakistan and India and would involve creative solutions to the political stalemate that could move from water management to broader bilateral rapprochement. A holistic approach to water resources—recognising the interaction and economic linkages between water, land, the users, the environment and infrastructure—is necessary to evade the impending water crisis in the subcontinent.
