RESOLVING WATER DISPUTES

Resolving Water Disputes

Resolving Water Disputes

The Indus Basin: Situation Analysis and Background

From the Himalayan Mountain range, in India, into the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the water of the Indus basin flows through the hills crossing across various provinces of Pakistan, from Punjab to Sindh, down to the Arabian Sea in the south. Earlier it was just a narrow irrigated strip of land by the river. There has been noticeable development in this region, in the last century, providing enormous network of canals and water storage facilities, enabling water resource for over 26 million acres of land. After the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, Pakistan and India, two new-born states, were at dispute over this natural asset, which previously was cohesively utilized. Pakistan threatened to its livelihood as the Indus basin originates from, what now is a part of India. The geographical segregation of the sub-continent was such that, India was in power of the supply of water for Pakistani cultivable land. In order to meet the initial requirement of water by the state, there has been an accord between the two states on May 4th, 1948, during the earlier years of the partition. India required to provide sufficient water to Pakistan in return of yearly payments from the government of Pakistan. This initial agreement was to be followed for negotiations into a permanent solution of the problem. However, both states were not satisfied by the agreement. From Indian point of view, Pakistan has no right to influence their schemes to avert the flow of the river. Pakistan was at the mercy of Indian generosity and wanted to present the matter to the International Court of Justice (Nayyar. 2002). India refused to claim bilateral resolution. The issue remained unresolved until 1951, and, it was obvious that there has to be a proper resolution of the problem in order to maintain peace among the two countries.

The Involvement of World Bank

In 1951, David Lilienthal visited the sub-continent, who was primarily the chairman of Tennessee Valley Authority and U.S Atomic Energy Commission. Lilienthal visit, sponsored by Colliers, so as to write a series of articles for its magazine. He was welcomed by both governments and, it was clear to him that there has been discriminating tensions between the two states. According to Lilienthal, Pakistan and India were at the edge of war over the state of Kashmir and there has to be an effort to reduce hostility between the two countries, where both countries would have a chance to cooperate and come to general terms, which would lead to the settlement of the Issue of Kashmir. He proposed an agreement between the two countries for the resolution of water supply of the Indus basin, which was of crucial importance for both for agricultural productivity and economic prosperity. He suggested the World Bank to financially assist the states for the establishment of canals and dams (Gulhati and Niranjan, 1973). Lilienthal's proposal was appreciated by Eugene ...