India’s dam on Chenab exacerbates water wars

INDIA'S AQUA BOMBS: Draught & floods imposed on Pakistan: Indus Water Treaty violations- state terror.

Bharats (aka India) has been unable to resolve any of her boundary disputes with any of her neighbors. Bharats norhtern border is in a state of constant hot and cold war with China. Her disputes with Bangaldesh pre-date the country. Her issues with Nepal are never ending. The Bharati attempt to bifurcate Sri Lanka were recently defeated when the RAW agent was killed. China, Pakistan and Lanka cooperated to defeat the designs of Delhi.

Bharat also has water disputes with Bangladesh at the Furrakha Barrage which infringes on the rights of the lower reparian (technical term to designate those living on the receiving end of the water).

Bharat after illegally occupying Kashmir using a fake article of accession which it now claims is lost 9as if it ever existed) has now built an illegal dam called Kishanganga dam on the Neelam river which eventually flows down to the Indus in Pakistan.

The Americans forced Field Marshall Ayub Khan to sign the Indus Water treaty. They had promised the construction of a dozen dams to alleviate the shortage of water (and electricity). Only the Mangla and Tarbeal were built. The other dams got delayed due to a myriad of issues-too lengthy to get into. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgRzwRwLBY&feature=player_embedded

ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan still undecided when to formally seek intervention of the International Court of Arbitration against controversial construction of Kishanganga hydropower project by India in violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, New Delhi has started preparations to build another big dam on River Chenab.

Documents available with Dawn suggest that the government of Indian-occupied Kashmir has invited bids for a 'topographical survey of Bursar Dam (on Chenab) for acquisition of land and property'. New Delhi plans to begin construction by the end of the year.

Bursar Dam is considered as the biggest project among a host of others being built by India on two major rivers - Jhelum and Chenab - flowing through the state of Jammu & Kashmir into Pakistan and assigned to Islamabad under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. The proposed dam would not only violate the treaty, international environmental conventions and cause water scarcity in Pakistan but would also contribute towards melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Pakistan's Permanent Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah had repeatedly asked his Indian counterpart to provide details of the proposed water storage and hydropower projects, including Bursar dam. However, India has taken the stand that it was aware of its legal obligations and it would let Pakistan know about the project details and relevant data six months before construction activities as required under the bilateral treaty, he said, adding the Pakistan could do nothing more when such projects were in the planning and investigation stage.

Responding to a question about Kishanganga hydropower project, he said he had already requested the government to move quickly for constitution of an International Court of Arbitration to stop construction of the controversial project. Pakistan, he said, had already nominated two members for the court of arbitration and had asked to do the same. He said the procedure laid down in the waters treaty required the two nations to nominate two adjudicators each of their choice and then jointly nominate three members to complete the composition of a seven-member court of arbitration.

He said the procedure also required that in case of a disagreement over three adjudicators, the complainant nation should ask the World Bank to nominate these three members and start formal proceedings. Pakistan, he said, had even prepared the list of three joint adjudicators since India had not yet fulfilled its obligations to nominate its two members and three joint members of the court. "We have completed the entire process, it was only a matter of formal launching and only the government could do that," he said, adding that perhaps Islamabad intended to wait for the upcoming secretary level talks before triggering the legal process.

He, however, believed that these issues were of technical nature and should be processed accordingly as provided under the treaty.

Informed sources said that India had not only started building three other dams namely Sawalkot, Pakal-Dul and Kirthai on Chenab River, it has also completed the detail project report of Bursar Dam site. The proposed dam would have 829 feet height, storage capacity of more than two million acres feet and power generation capacity of 1200MW. The height of Baglihar, Tarbela and Mangla Dam is 474, 485 and 453 feet, respectively.

Bursar Dam would be constructed near Hanzal Village (near Kishtwar) in Doda District of Jammu & Kashmir on the 133-kilometre-long Marusudar River, the main right bank tributary of the Chenab river. Its construction would be a serious violation of the treaty as its storage was much behind the permissible limits. More than 4900 acres of thick forest would be submerged and the whole population of Hanzal village would be displaced.

Arshad H. Abbasi, visiting research fellow of the SDPI, said the project area fell in Seismic Zone V and hence most vulnerable to earthquake. Two active geological faults lines - Himalayan thrust and the Kishtwar fault - were passing through the project area, he said, adding that the worst impact of dam would be on glaciers of Marusudar river basin. He said that deforestation, coupled with high altitude military activities, had already created 48 glacial lakes in the Marusudar river basin covering an area of 225.35 sq km and massive construction activities in basin would further aggravate the melting of glaciers.

He said the project was located in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park which was an environmentally-protected area. Spreading over an area of 400 kilometres, the park contained 15 mammal species including the musk deer and Himalayan black and brown bear and some rare birds for which an environmental impact assessment study was necessary.

Bharat has built over 60 dams in Indian Occupied Kashmir. It uses these dams to prevent the flow of water to Pakistan, or on occasion, it simply floods hundreds of villages. This is a direct violation of the Indus Water Treaty, the United State Resolutions and International Law on riparian rights. Delhi gets away with these acts of war. Terrorism has many faces. One face of state terrorism is murdering innocent farmers by starving them, or by flooding their fields.

Bharat claims that the Kishanganga dam is for the production of electricity only. This is a fake excuse and does not hold water (pun intended).

NEW DELHI (APP) - India claimed on Thursday that the stage of differences or disputes on controversial Kishenganga Dam had not arisen and the issue could be further discussed at Commission level.