LAHORE: A nine-member delegation led by the Indian water commissioner arrived here on Tuesday for talks with their Pakistani counterparts on water disputes on the platform of the Pakistan-India Perma­nent Indus Commission.

Pakistan Water Com­missio­ner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah welcomed the delegation, headed by Indian Water Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Saxena, at the Wagah border.

The two-day deliberations on water disputes will begin on Wednesday (today). The talks will be held at the offices of the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) in Lahore.

The Indian team was earlier supposed to arrive here for talks in July but the visit was rescheduled in view of the July 25 general elections.

The water commissioners of the neighbouring countries are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects’ sites and critical river headworks.

A government official said they would raise their concerns over the construction of 1,000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on the River Chenab by New Delhi, ignoring Islamabad’s objections to their designs.

Pakistan says India has violated the Indus Waters Treaty by starting building reservoirs at a time when the country is reeling from a severe water crisis. Islamabad has been sharing its concerns over the designs of the Pakul Dul and Lower Kalnai projects and wants New Delhi to either modify the designs to make them compliant with the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty or put the projects on hold until it satisfies its neighbour. Both projects are being built on different tributaries of the River Chenab.

Earlier in March 2017, India had pledged that it would modify the designs but it never kept its promises. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the Pakal Dul project in May this year. The controversial project is scheduled to be completed in five years.

According to the government official, India has been using this typical strategy to keep Pakistan engaged in talks while continuing to work on disputed water projects. By the time Islamabad moves international forum against controversial projects, India tries to complete them.

Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari earlier told the Senate that firm and strong decisions would be taken regarding the water issue and there would be no concession on the matter during talks with India.

Both sides will also finalise a schedule of future meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission and visits of the teams of the Indus commissioners, as the two-day session is also expected to find ways and means of timely and smooth sharing of hydrological data on shared rivers.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2018