ISLAMABAD, June 4: Pakistan on Thursday claimed India’s plans to build a river-linking project to divert water from Chenab would be a “grave violation” of the Indus Waters Treaty and other international laws.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi was reacting to questions about media reports that said India is planning to tunnel Chenab water to the Beas river, both part of the Indus basin.
India put the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in “abeyance” from last year. It was one of the punitive measures against Pakistan taken a day after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan.
“Yes, we have seen this report as well as the public tender document issued by the government of India that India has invited bids for the Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel project with the intention of transferring 1.9 million acre feet (MAF) of water annually from Chenab into the Beas system.
“Such an inter-basin diversion of water of the Chenab into the Beas system constitutes a grave violation of not just the IWT but also of the laws of treaty, particularly the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the broader framework of international water law, including the principles reflected in the 1977 UN convention on watercourses,” he claimed. (PTI)
