“Wars of twenty-first century will be fought over water” Ismail Serageldin. Water is the driving force for all the nature. Pakistan is a grave victim of water scarcity , because of being on lower riparian in relation to the rivers emanating from the Indian held Kashmir, India has never missed an opportunity to harm Pakistan since its inception; it is creating deliberate water shortages for Pakistan with the aim to impair Pakistan agriculturally. Historically, India has been trying to establish her rule in three religions by controlling water sources and damaging agricultural economies of her neighboring states. India has water disputes with Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Indian extremist prime minister Modi who has given the ordered to concerned department to continue construction of dames and diverting of Chenab river to bias , which is a serious violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. Therefore Pak-India water disputes accelerated.
Likewise, Pakistan has objected to the projects being built by India in Jammu and Kashmir on the grounds that they violate the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between two countries. After India rejected the charge, Pakistan has gone to the World Bank the designated IWT mediators. Islamabad has also asked the United States government to intervene and has added the component of water security to the China Pakistan economic corridor agreement. Of the rivers in the Indus basin, the Indus and the Sutlej has its catchment in China and flow through India before reaching Pakistan. The other four rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Beas flow from India to Pakistan, for a while now Pakistan has also wanted to bring China into the picture. At sixth meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the CPEC which was held in Beijing on December 29, a special group on water storage was formed to pre-empt any “severe water crisis” Impacting economic and food security of Pakistan, JCC the highest policy making of CPEC may consider including Diamer-Bhasha dam into the CPEC agreement, if Pakistan succeeded in getting the dam under financed by CPEC, planning and development minister said, ‘’it will be a landmark achievement’’. Because both the world bank and Asian Development Bank already refused to lend money to Pakistan for hydropower projects, now Pakistan has no other choice except authorities makes it possible that issues regarding Pakistan energy sector should bring under the umbrella of CPEC ,so that Pakistan become the real beneficiary of this project.
Nevertheless in light of the above article, it is mentionable that since the 9/11 tragedy international community has been taking war against terrorism seriously, while there are also other forms of bloodless wars , being waged in the world and the same like terrorism. Political experts opine that modern terrorism has many meanings like violent acts, economic terrorism etc but its main aim to achieve political, economical and social ends. Judging in these terms, Pak- India water dispute which has become serious needs of attention for US and other major powers, as India remains stern on her illegitimate stand in this respect and Pakistan should raise its voice at international level that India’s buildings of reservoir and fully utilizing the water storage capacity under the treaty poses a serious threat to Pakistan agriculture”.
Authors:
Muhammad Shafique, Irfan Yusuf, sajid Hanif, Muhammad Irshad, Bilal younis
University of agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan.
