Water stakes

After facing embarrassment on the military and diplomatic fronts, India is bent upon escalating tensions with Pakistan by weaponising water as a means of confrontation. The risky gambit it is exercising by constructing new dams and dramatically increasing the water it draws from the reservoirs that feed Pakistan downstream is fraught with serious geological consequences.

New Delhi, perhaps, is unmindful of the fact that it is also a middle riparian state between China and Bangladesh, and this modus operandi of water terrorism could come to haunt it in the long run. Moreover, plans to double the length of the Ranbir Canal on the Chenab River, which would increase water diversion from 40 to 150 cubic meters per second, could prove to be catastrophic, along with the building of new hydropower projects on the rivers allocated to Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty.

India knows for sure that its unilateral suspension of the 1960 IWT is not going to hold, and it will have to rescind it sooner than later. It is also aware that it cannot restrict the flow of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers due to insufficient storage capacity. In fact, its strategy of coercion is meant for diversions using existing storage facilities. This is tantamount to provoking Pakistan and pushing it to the brink, as water forms the lifeline of the 240 million people in the agrarian state.

If the situation escalates, it could pitch both the states in a renewed military muscle-flexing as Pakistan has already declared water suspension as an act of war. India's sole intention seems to be to force Pakistan into kinetic mode, leading to targeting of specific components of Indian hydropower infrastructure, including spillways, powerhouses and dams.

This methodical madness is in need of being checked instantly. World Bank and the international community must intervene and stop India from going to war on water, as it would not remain a bilateral affair with Pakistan for long. India's hawkism to capitalise on water as an upper riparian state is myopic, and speaks of its idiotic mean mentality.