ISLAMABAD: India has ramped up its construction activities on the 850MW Ratle hydroelectric project and the 330MW Kishanganga project on Pakistan's rivers with objectionable designs during the last five years, after the World Bank on December 12, 2016. had closed different processes initiated by India. Under the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan allows the two countries to consider alternative ways of resolving their disagreements on the above two projects.
It was Pakistan that first moved the World Bank, seeking the formation of a court of arbitration to resolve the fate of the Kishanganga hydroelectric project, which is operational on the Jhelum river and the 850MW Ratle hydroelectric project being built on the Chenab river. However, India later asked the World Bank to appoint neutral experts to address Pakistan's concerns over the design of both the projects. But the World Bank's top management, according to its website, paused on December 12, 2016 and proceeded with the mechanism for resolving the objections raised by Pakistan to save the Indus Waters Treaty between the two nuclear countries. which it brokered in 1960.
The World Bank says it had stalled the appointment of the chairman of the arbitration court and a neutral expert as requested by Pakistan to resolve the issues of two hydroelectric power plants under construction along the Indus river system by India. The bank says that both the processes initiated by Pakistan and India at the same time run the risk of conflicting outcomes that could potentially jeopardize the treaty.
However, top sources in both the Ministry of Water Resources and the Pakistan Commission of Indus Water told The News that India has not only started its Kishanganga project by taking advantage of the World Bank's moratorium in December 2016, but also is extended. Progress on 850MW Ratle Hydroelectric Project. What's more, India has submitted its final design of the Ratle project to the United Nations without addressing Pakistan's concerns for the eligibility of carbon credits.
India built the Kishanganga project with an objectionable design in 2017, a year after it was halted by the World Bank, and is now resuming its construction activities at the site of the Ratle Hydroelectric Project with a design that will support water conservation. does not conform to the provisions. Treaty as per the objection raised by Pakistan. Pakistan wrote a letter to the World Bank on April 3, 2018, stating that the pause taken by the bank has given time to the Indian side to build the Kishanganga project.
And if the Ratle project is completed in the presence of the ongoing World Bank pause, Pakistan will face 40 per cent loss in water flow reaching Sialkot Hedmarla. This means huge losses for irrigation of various crops in Punjab, which is the food basket of the country. The Ratle project, once completed, will directly damage the food basket of the country.
When contacted, Syed Mehr Ali Shah, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources and also Acting Indus Water Commissioner, Pakistan. He said that he is in touch with the World Bank and in the latest communication Pakistan had asked the World Bank to break the pause and set up a court of arbitration as India can take advantage of the pause. He said the World Bank had also promised to mediate between the two countries, but no progress had been made in this regard. "We are optimistic that the World Bank will respond positively to this issue in response to the latest communication from Pakistan."
He claimed that Pakistan was the first country in the World Bank to demand the setting up of a court of arbitration and India later asked the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert. He said the World Bank needs to explain that when a party approaches the WB for the forum of a neutral expert or arbitration court, the bank must first hear that side. Under the dispute resolution enshrined in the Indus Waters Treaty, the World Bank has a role to play as it is also a party to the dispute between Pakistan and India. Pakistan had called for settlement of disputes over the Kishanganga project on the Neelum river and the 850-MW Ratle hydroelectric project on the Chenab.
Pakistan believes that Kishanganga's pound should be a maximum of one million cubic meters instead of 7.5 million cubic metres, the intake should be extended by four meters and the spillway to nine metres.
Pakistan had four objections to the Rattle project. Freeboard should be one meter instead of two metres, poundage maximum eight million cubic meters instead of 24 million, intake level 8.8 meters and spillway 20 meters high.