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Talking Water Treaties

afiasalam by afiasalam
May 15, 2010
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Newsline By Afia Salam 15 May 2010

river

All journalists going in search of a story have to wade through muddy waters to reach the truth. This became an apt metaphor when a group of Indian and Pakistani journalists came together at a workshop organised by LEAD Pakistan to demystify the touchy subject of the Indus Waters Treaty.

With the rhetoric “hotting up” on the subject in Pakistan (to the tune of beating war drums by the hawks) there was a dire need to grapple with the what, when and who of the subject. Interestingly, the timing of the workshop was all the more poignant as it coincided with the Indian Water Commissioner holding a key dialogue with his Pakistani counterpart, Jama’at Ali Shah, in Lahore. The reports emanating from there brought home the need for informed reporting on this sensitive issue.

Water is a diminishing resource the world over. It needs to be conserved and used judiciously. However, when it is a shared resource, and that too between traditional adversaries, rather than dousing tensions, it becomes a volatile agent.

But it does not always have to be so.

There are examples in the world. In the Nile Delta, for instance, 10 countries share the basin of the Nile, arguably the world’s longest river. These are Burundi, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Another positive example is in the Mekong Delta in South East Asia, where an amicable distribution has been worked out between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

So what is it about the waters of the Indus that evoke passions on the west of the Wagah and make some people talk of the tensions escalating into a nuclear conflict?

Here the stakeholders are China, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, but the element of conflict is introduced into the equation because of India, especially as the Indus flows into Pakistan through the contentious land of Kashmir.

To make an understatement, historically, none of these countries have been each other’s best friends. They have come to blows more than once (China and India, India and Pakistan, and there is a continuing mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan). However, it goes to the credit of the meticulously negotiated Indus Waters Treaty that it held its own despite two full-blown wars (1965 and 1971) and a limited but extremely perilous skirmish in Kargil. Is it any wonder then that the treaty is taught at all strategic institutes teaching conflict and cooperation?

So what has suddenly gone wrong that we are being given the impression that water wars are in the offing? Why is it that the water issue is such a big deal here in Pakistan, but in India people are generally unaware of even the existence of a crisis? Well for one thing, it is because India is the upper riparian. In other words, “The regional hegemon (India) is the upper riparian and has all the cards in its hands. This asymmetry means that it is India that is driving the train,” writes John Briscoe, the Gordon McKay professor of environmental health at Harvard University. He was the senior water advisor for the World Bank, who dealt with the appointment of the neutral expert on the Baglihar case.

We in our own country are familiar with the huge gulf in the understanding of the water issues. The lower riparians in Sindh have been crying themselves hoarse and feel that their cries are falling on deaf ears of the upper riparian, hence the heartburning and resentment.

Herein lie the problems in reporting these issues. There is a lack of data, a lack of access to existing data and very little interaction between the journalists and communicators with the scientists, water experts and environment experts. As a result, the information that does exist is not in a form that people can understand.

02Pie_chart05-10The success of this particular workshop was in bringing such experts and journalists together, and the information shared was an eye opener. An eye opener because the rhetoric from the hawks maintains that the treaty ‘gifted’ three of Pakistan’s rivers to India.

History tells us the need arose when on April 1, 1948, India stopped the water supply to Pakistan from all canals flowing from India to Pakistan. In 1960, after 10 years of exhaustive and painstaking negotiations, with the World Bank standing as guarantor, the Indus Waters Treaty was signed.

The treaty gives India exclusive use of all of the waters of the eastern rivers (Sutlej, Beas and Ravi) and their tributaries before the point where the rivers enter Pakistan. Similarly, Pakistan has exclusive use of the western rivers. This three-versus-two equation is shouted from the rooftops as unfair, but anyone pointing out the fact that Pakistan received 135 MAF (Million Acre Feet) while India’s share was 33 MAF is deemed as ‘pro-Indian’ (see graph “Water Share After IWT”).

Pakistan also received a one-time financial compensation for the loss of water from the eastern rivers. The treaty guaranteed 10 years of uninterrupted water supply. During this period, Pakistan was to build huge dams, financed partly by long-term World Bank loans and the compensation money from India. It is another matter that India reneged on the compensation and the World Bank stepped in. This is how the three multipurpose dams Warsak, Mangla and Tarbela were built.

Aside from the financial cost of these mega engineering marvels, there was a human and political cost that was not calculated at the time of their building. Yes, the people of Mirpur received financial compensation as well as UK visas in exchange for the drowning of their homes and hearths. But what of the lower riparians within the country, the people of Sindh who saw the proliferation of the canal network and the green revolution in the Punjab?

Danish Mustafa, professor at the department of geography at Kings College, London, holds the view that if Ayub Khan’s totalitarian rule and his One Unit, which blurred Sindh’s identity, had not been there, the agreement to the treaty may not have been easy. Marginalisation of those voices became a festering wound, marring inter-provincial relations.

The suspicions about the release of waters downstream Kotri and the havoc that sea intrusion has wrought due to the lack of fresh water flows in the Indus delta, are issues political capital is made out of – even though the figures speak a different story. Thirty-five MAF downstream Kotri is an oft-quoted figure, which would cater for “water for cities, water for agriculture, water for industries, as well as water for nature,” in the words of Dr Parvaiz Amir, a noted agricultural economist and environmental expert.

Figures for past years show that it has been released but, according to hydrology expert Daniyal Hashmi, “The need is for storage of this water and regulation throughout the year, not just a few days of the year, plus its use in the lean flow years.”

Experts are unanimous on the need for better water management, something that Pakistan severely lacks. Says Dr Amir, “We are moving from a water-scarce to a water-stressed country.”

Dependence on snowmelt in the Himalayan glaciers, which sends water coursing through our plains, has become questionable due to the impacts of climate change, an unknown factor at the time of drafting the treaty. This exposes us to many additional threats too: disasters due to GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods) and subsequent drought due to glacial depletion. To many this seems a distant threat, but in the here and now, one reason why the Indians seem so unconcerned about our plight is that we have not displayed much sagacity in planning.

Our ‘wonderful’ canal network is mostly unlined, so whatever water is released, a large percentage of it is lost to evaporation. We have depleted the aquifer without giving it a chance to recharge through blind overuse of tube wells run on cheap electricity. We have truly been penny-wise, pound-foolish! We have not built adequate storage and reservoirs. And of course, there are the population pressures we are exerting on the diminishing resources. Is it any wonder that the Indians ‘just can’t get’ why Pakistan is making a noise about water theft, when it is not even keeping safe the water resources it has on its own side of the border?

To illustrate the point, Daniyal Hashmi gives the example of Israel, which is a role model for the world as far as water management is concerned. Israel has 1.4 MAF of water and it is producing $12 billion worth of crops. We have 100 times more water, but 50% of the population is involved in poor agriculture practices (growing sugarcane and cotton, water-intensive crops that would be cheaper if simply imported) yielding production of a meagre $40 billion. “Pakistan has hydroelectric potential of 40,000MW but is realising only 6,500MW. Pakistanis spend $28 billion annually on imports and the largest category receiving that precious foreign exchange is used in purchasing petroleum. This money could be diverted to the development projects, and cheap electricity and water reservoirs could be made,” says Hashmi.

So while all this information is very well, where do the journalists figure in all of this? Well, for one thing, they must ask questions. No one expects them to make a scientific argument. But they need to get the scientists and politicians to come clean on the issues. Issues such as why the telemetry system installed to ensure transparency in river flows has not been used – using it could have lowered tensions between provinces and allowed for the building of much needed water projects that have become victim of polemic politics. The rhetoric on transboundary water issues can also be cut down through use of this system to monitor flows. These issues can be a cause of conflict of interest between the most benign of neighbours, and the relationship between Pakistan and India has been anything but. We should be grateful to those who crafted this treaty as they built in mechanisms of conflict resolution, hence Pakistan’s silence despite its case being lost in front of the arbitrator for objections on India’s Baghliar dam.

When the politicians cry foul and act as rabble rousers, it is up to the journalists to act as the bridge between the scientists and experts who hold the truth, and the people who are likely to be impacted the most in case of any misadventure. They must bridge the gap between information and dissemination. For this, more capacity as well as confidence building measures are needed so journalists investigating a story are not seen as enemy agents trying to divulge state secrets. In this day and age, the state has no business keeping too many secrets from its people, the real stakeholders. Access to information, transparency and accountability are the tools journalists can use to make the waters less muddied.

afiasalam

afiasalam

  Resume Freelance journalist and Communications consultant A bridge connecting ideas to people & solutions   Name: Afia Salam DoB:  03021957 Nationality: Pakistani Experience: Journalism: I have been associated with the media in many capacities since 1978. ·   Started as Pakistan's first female cricket writer. ·   Worked at The Star, eveninger of the Dawn group of Newspapers. ·   Editor of an Aviation and Defense magazine (Wings) ·    Executive Editor of The Cricketer magazine in the 80's and 90's, ·   Editor of Pakistan’s first Energy publication in 2001(Energy Update). ·   Joined Dawnnews which was launched as Pakistan’s first English language channel. Worked as a senior copy editor, Head of Culture Desk and content in charge of its flagship morning show titled Daily Breakfast@Dawn. ·   Content head of SpeakforChange blog and its associated web channel 247online.tv where I hosted a show and co-hosted another. ·   Communications Consultant for Exponent Engineers on the charged parking component of the World Bank-Government of Sindh KNIP project ·   Project lead for #C4CC (Conversations for Climate Change) Media capacity building project of High Commission of Canada in Pakistan and UNESCO ·   Project Lead for UNESCO supported  #MIL (Media Information Literacy) for Climate Change Stories from Pakistan, a nationwide media support project I contribute articles as a freelancer to many media outlets eg: Dawn, Tribune, Newsline, Aurora, The News on Sunday, Thirdpole, Nayadaur, The Friday Times. GEO English and Pique magazine.   Advertising: Worked almost 15 years as Creative head and Director Special Projects of three different advertising agencies, Blazon, Argus, and Blitz. From 1991 to 2005.         Development Sector: ·       Headed IUCN-Pakistan (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Education, Communications and Outreach Unit, and also briefly headed their Business and BioDiversity portfolio to kick start engagement with the corporate sector and industries to promote sustainable practices. ·       Served as Sindh coordinator of the newly formed Imran Khan Foundation to provide relief, rehabilitation and resettlement to the victims of 2010 floods in Sindh and of 2011 Badin cloudburst.   Socio-Cultural/Education Sector: ·       Project Manager for Pakistan for Google Cultural Institute  2014-15 to showcase Pakistan’s cultural and historical assets through digital exhibits prepared according to the GCI template.  ·       Communications Lead at Badal Do, a school and education reform programme ·       Visiting faculty at IoBM, having taught courses on Media Law and Ethics, and Environmental Journalism. Training: I have been involved in media development through training of journalists in reporting on environment, climate change, gender, labor, digital security, election reporting, effective use of social media and media ethics. ·       These trainings were held across Pakistan on behalf of organizations such as Pakistan Press Foundation-UNESCO, Intermedia-ILO, IRADA, Civic Action Resource- Solidarity Center, Intermedia-Democracy Reporting International, IUCN Pakistan-Oxfam-GB, LEAD Pakistan-HBS, LEAD-WWF, Green Media Initiatives- GNMI, Pakistan Water Partnership, CEJ-IBA. ·       Have also been a conducted trainings of school teachers, college and university students, and Government officials on the subjects of Environment, Climate Change and Media matters on behalf of IUCN Pakistan,  LEAD Pakistan, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Greenwich University, Institute of Business Management, Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Islamic Relief Pakistan, , High Commission of Canada in Pakistan ·       Have held media management training for Marie Stopes Society , Unilever Pakistan, Uber- Pakistan and KElectric for their middle and top management.   Authored a commissioned researches on: ·       Needs Assessment for Promoting Ethics and Transparency in Pakistan Media  for Pakistan Press Foundation/Internews ·        Effect of Covid-19 on Journalism. commissioned by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung   Official Nominations: ·       Working Group on Climate Change and Security formed under the National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning for the preparation of the National Security Policy ·       Member of the National Climate Change Council under the Federal Ministry of Climate Change ·       Multi-stakeholder National Coordinating Body of the Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan to set up Marine Protected Areas in Pakistan and am part of the team that saw through the declaration of Astola Island of Balochistan as Pakistan’s first MPA. ·       Curriculum Review Committee of Government of Sindh to assess gender balance and pluralism in primary school textbooks of 3 subjects ·       Review Committee to assess Climate Change content in Science and Geography Curriculum being developed under the Single National Curriculum ·       Consumer Protection Council announced by the Government of Sindh ·       Baaghban Core Group of Karachi Municipal Corporation’s Horticulture Department. ·       Focal Person and Communications lead for the unique “Art for Climate Change” initiative began under the aegis of Ministry of Climate that has broadened outreach of Climate Change through the art community by taking them on retreats and exhibiting their outputs. Was part of the retreat in 2018 to Naran, and to the Sindh Delta under Government of Sindh banner in 2020. ·       Member of the Gender Based Violence Sub Committee of the Sindh Commission for Human Rights ·       Member of Fact-Finding Committee for the archives verification at National Museum, Karachi ·       Was a member of the first ever rafting expedition on the river Indus which traversed from its entry point into Pakistan to where it drains into the Arabian Sea     I have moderated seminars, Panel discussions, Roundtables, Inception report launches etc for UNDP Small Grants Programme, UNDP Climate Finance in Bangkok, WWF Pakistan, IDRC/Kings College London/IBA Karachi, World Bank ‘Pakistan @100’ launch in Karachi to name a few.   Have ghost written, edited and translated several books and reports of some leading personalities and organizations.   Have also done third party qualitative assessment of projects.   Fellowships:   ·       Fellow of Lead Pakistan (Cohort 16) under its Leadership Development Programme on the subject of Green Economies and completed an additional Fellowship on Indus Basin Benefit Sharing. ·       GRID graduate, which is a leadership development course. ·       Completed a course from on Water from  LUMS Water In Technology School ·       Received scholarship by International Labor Organization for an online course on Gender from its ITC in Turin, Italy. ·       Am an IAF alumni, having completed a course on Liberalism, Environment & Property Rights. ·       Participated in a short course in Women in Executive Leadership at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia on a fellowship from Australia Awards. ·       Was an Journalists Exchange Programme participant of US Consulate on CVE (Countering Violent Extremism)   Memberships and Associations: ·       Advisor for National Forum for Environment & Health, Bolo Bhi, a digital rights research policy and advocacy organization ·       Member of  WWF Pakistan, IUCN Commission on Education and Communications, and IUCN CEESP Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. ·       Core Group for Water Energy & Food Nexus for Sindh and Universities for Water Network created by the Hisaar Foundation ·       Think tank on Hoga Saaf Pakistan   Member Steering Committee: ·       Alliance on Diversity and Pluralism in Media, ·       Urban Forest Coalition Civil Society Organizations: Trustee and Chair of Board of Indus Earth Trust, a rural development organization Trustee of Helpline Trust, which focuses on consumer and civic rights Trustee of Saneeya Hussain Trust that assists in girls’ higher education, as a President Executive Committee of Baanhn Beli Founding Board member and Vice President Salman Sufi Foundation Member Advisory Committee of FFOP (Faith For Our Planet)     My website is being redone and will be accessible at www.afiasalam.com Some information of my work is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afia_Salam   I have traveled to Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, India, UAE, Kenya, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, UK, USA, and Australia in an official as well personal capacity.                                                                                                                                                                        

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Comments 4

  1. asif sethi says:
    12 years ago

    respected madam
    aslamualkam your email recieved daily basis i am thankful to you

    from
    dr asif sethi
    daily bright star gujrnwala 03364611983

    Reply
  2. Rohail Akbar says:
    11 years ago

    nice

    Reply
  3. Ejaz Sikandar says:
    9 years ago

    Dear Afia

    I have been reading your emails ans sometime queries. All this is very interesting and inforamtive. I would like to see your work/papers on water issue. I do hope that you would contineou your efforts for enriching the inforamtion of all stakeholders for enriching their inforamtion and knowledge.

    God bless on all of us

    Many regards
    Ejaz Sikandar
    Cohort-6 and Ex-Employee of IUCN

    Reply
    • afiasalam says:
      9 years ago

      thank you very much for your encouraging words.. my blog has not been updated but I am sure you must be receiving the mails with links to my articles via all-cohorts. Do give feedback. Will try and write more on water

      Reply

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Afia salam

Media consultant and trainer, content developer/editor, documentary concept and script writer, presenter/producer.
Currently working as free lance journalist and media trainer, especially in the field of Environmental journalism.

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