India releases water into Chenab River

Water flow in the river reaches 58,300 cusecs on Monday

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD:

Without intimating Pakistan, India has released water into the River Chenab, where water flow on Monday reached 58,300 cusecs. Officials claim that India emptied its dams deliberately to damage Pakistan's wheat crop.

They alleged that India will now refill its dams, potentially reducing the Chenab's flow to zero—a move described as "water terrorism" aimed at harming wheat production.

India in May this year unilaterally suspended the Indus-Waters Treaty (IWT), a 1960 water-sharing agreement, brokered by the World Bank, allocating three eastern rivers to India and three western rivers to Pakistan.

The three eastern rivers, which have a total mean annual flow of 33-million-acre ft are the River Beas, the River Ravi and the River Sutlej.

The three western rivers, which have a total mean annual flow of 135-million-acre ft, are the River Indus, the River Chenab and the River Jhelum.

Meanwhile, the annual per capita water availability in Pakistan has declined due to rapid population growth, according to a report presented in the National Assembly by the Ministry of Water Resources on Monday.

Pakistan's population has increased by 40 million between 2017 and 2023, resulting in a decrease of 154 cubic meters per capita water availability.

By 2030, Pakistan's population is projected to reach 288 million, and per capita water availability is expected to drop to 795 cubic meters annually due to continued population growth.

Per capita annual water availability has decreased to 679 cubic meters in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 760 cubic meters in Punjab; 1,169 cubic meters in Sindh and 928 cubic meters in Balochistan.