1960 treaty: Govt ‘must revisit’ strategy to implement water accord

Symposium presents 20-point declaration to help Pakistan avoid a water crisis

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s strategy for implementation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with New Delhi should be reconsidered and revisited to bolster its case in view of the water crisis facing the country, insist the participants of an international conference on Saturday.

“The international water law should be taken advantage of by consistently putting forward Pakistan’s perspective before various international forums, and Pakistan’s strategy regarding implementation of the IWT should be reconsidered and revisited to bolster its case,” said a declaration issued after a two-day international symposium on ‘Creating A Water-Secure Pakistan’.

The event, held at the Supreme Court premises, was attended by various national and international experts on water. After holding five sessions on different issues, a 20-point declaration was issued.

 The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar in his concluding remarks said the real issue is the implementation or execution of policies.

“They [governments] did not fulfill their responsibility; therefore, we had to step in (by creating a fund for construction of new dams and taking other initiatives).

“The people who did not take any measures in the last 40 years for construction of new water reservoirs should be held accountable for their criminal negligence,” he added.

The chief justice also questioned if he had encroached on other institution’s affairs by visiting hospitals and demanding health facilities to the needy persons.

The declaration

The deceleration demanded that the government  must introduce water accounting based on modernised water data collection methods to assess, amongst other things, the water availability per capita, in order to build trust amongst the provinces regarding water apportionment, particularly considering the requirements of the Indus Delta and lower riparian areas in Pakistan,

It recommended that Pakistan should immediately set up a powerful ‘Task Force on Water’. Likewise, agricultural income tax be levied and recovered across the board, throughout Pakistan through an effective legal framework.

“The potential of Pakistan’s part of the Indus Basin has to be realised through priority actions that need to be taken on an immediate basis. Maintaining the integrity of the Indus Basin is a serious and important responsibility of the federation as well as the provinces, including all other administrative units and above all, the people of Pakistan.”

The declaration said it is imperative for Pakistan to invest in supply augmentation (dams and reservoirs) and ensure better utilisation of its groundwater, adopting appropriate water technologies (water recycling, desalinisation, and water harvesting) and manage consumption and use of water (controlling water demand and pricing) and do all of this under the principles of mutual trust and benefit sharing.

“Effective salinity and sedimentation management techniques must be adopted to protect Pakistan’s agricultural land and the storage capacity of dams and reservoirs respectively.

“Numerous small and large dams and reservoirs must be constructed on a priority basis. Fast-track feasibilities and action is required on the part of the Executive.

“Innovative solutions regarding storage facilities for low gradient plains (flat areas, coastal areas, hard rock, barani areas and desert areas) must be adopted,” it added.

It said the Indus Basin irrigation network has to be extended which would bring several million acres of land under irrigation, and design water allocation right down to the district level.

Various traditional and non-traditional financing methods including direct investment, corporate finance, portfolio investment, bonds, upfront tariff, crowd funding and public private partnership arrangements, must be employed to meet the huge financial requirements for construction of dams.



Likewise, it is resolved that various measures for conservation of water need to be taken which include saving and better management of storage of groundwater to prevent its unrestricted extraction.

“It is also proposed that measures need to be introduced for flood risk reduction through flood plains and hill-torrent management, groundwater recharge, wetlands restoration and community based natural resource management.

“Other measures to control wastage, encourage productivity and ensure sustainability of scarce resources need to be considered. An appropriate legal framework should be available to strengthen institutional arrangements for proper environmental hazard tackling.”

The declaration said it is no longer feasible to allow unfettered access to the valuable resource of water with no incentives to check usage. Therefore, it is essential that a fair water pricing model is formulated and implemented by the competent regulatory institutions.

“The Indus Basin, one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world, is at risk of reduced flows, climate change, population explosion, outdated agricultural practices, financial crunch and other challenges, which need to be addressed immediately.

“Pakistan’s rain-fed areas, deserts, mountain catchments, and coastlines also face challenges relating to water availability and water uses. The recently articulated national water policy is a step towards remedying these issues which should be implemented by the executive,” it said.