PRIOR to 1947, India was commonly known as Bharat Mata (the motherland). With the borders marked, ‘Bharat Mata’ was divided, evoking uproar and hurt as a natural consequence. Freshly brewed under the BJP, today, that 20th-century resentment takes the face of an operation to cut off Pakistan’s water supply — paralyse it. It appears to have four limbs with three execution points.

The first limb involves the construction of six hydropower projects in India-held Kashmir on Chenab river, awarded to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). According to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ 2011 report, “the cumulative effect of these projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season”.

The second limb encompasses building Afghanistan’s multimillion-dollar Shahtoot dam on the Kabul river, which sustains Pakistan’s 243MW Warsak Dam. Limiting this water supply will push Warsak Dam into dormancy, causing rapid reduction in power generation, agricultural yield and adversely impacting residents of Peshawar, D.I. Khan, Banuri, Tank and North Waziristan.

The third limb, announced by India’s union water resource minister, focuses on redirecting back to India (Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab) water flowing into Pakistan through the rivers Ravi, Sutlej and Beas. To some, this may sound fair — ultimately, these rivers were awarded to India under the IWT. But, the danger lies in missing a potential twist in India’s game plan: if Pakistan begins to develop these lands, which were once riverbeds, limb three of the operation will invert; waters will be unblocked, causing millions worth of damage to Pakistan. The opponent is loyal to its motives, not strategies.

Pakistan is wilfully blind to the threats to its water supply.

The fourth limb involves abusing its geographical location to intermittently block water in Pakistan’s rivers (Jhelum, Chenab, Indus) as their origin points lie on India’s side. Our mighty neighbour also unfairly profits from the power projects it has constructed on these rivers, thus showcasing its strength and control over our declared natural resources. In short, India possesses the key to Pakistan’s treasure.

As part of this operation, these tactics aim to lower water levels, trouble Pakistanis and damage the backbone of the economy — agriculture. The objectives behind these Machia­vellian manoeuvres have been described by some Indian anchors as ‘Payasa mareyga Pakistan, Pakistan banega qabristan’.

Wilfully blinding itself to these threats is an ironic and condemnable act on the part of Pakistan’s government. It fails to use or even store the water on its territory and under its control. Whilst 44 per cent of its population remains thirsty, Pakistan wastes approximately $22 billion worth of water as it flows untouched, into the Arabian Sea, every year. In 2010 alone, 25 million acres of water were lost in floods, 20m Pakistanis were affected and one-fifth of land area was damaged, thus hindering power generation and economic growth. All this results from an inner enemy’s gross negligence and corrosive mismanagement, which puts Pakistan on the path to hazardous oblivion via self-destruction.

Such neglect is further illustrated by the ongoing delay in implementing a 2013 Lahore High Court order to construct the Kalabagh dam. Obstinate determination to uphold provincial differences, in an attempt to prevent the dam from benefiting Punjab more than KP and Sindh, has lost us 2.4m acres of irrigated land, $1bn and Rs132bn spent on energy and irrigation respectively.

Similarly, while construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam stands suspended, Pakistan is wasting around 6.4MAF of water and 4,500MW (generation capacity) of power. As the dam lies on the boundaries of KP and Gilgit-Baltistan, disputes over royalties cause their governments to deny fellow Pakistanis the basic necessities of life.

Internal mismanagement and external threats increase the dire need to maintain and create water storage facilities and adopt conservation techniques, namely appropriately pricing water to ensure efficient usage (while securing access to all), lining canals to arrest seepage, using the drip irrigation method to prevent wastage, and installing recycling and treatment plants. Initiating community-based projects that raise awareness of water saving at both industrial and domestic levels will create the much-needed sense of responsibility and accountability for existing water resources.

Eschewing dams and failing to update preservation techniques would translate to Pakistan losing 22bn cubic metres of this precious commodity by 2025. As one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, it cannot permit inefficiencies or internal contentions to provide launching pads for threatening external efforts. In times of such crises, we must work together to resolve the issue and set an example of resilience.

This writer is a lawyer.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018