Indus Waters Treaty

News:Indian Prime minister has said that the Indus river water which belongs to India but is flowing to Pakistan would soon get diverted to the fields of Haryana and Rajasthan for the benefit of agriculture in the state.

Facts:

About Indus water treaty:

• The Indus Waters Treaty,1960 is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan.
• The Indus system comprises of Indus River, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.The basin is mainly shared by India and Pakistan with a small share for China and Afghanistan.
• Under the Indus treaty, all the waters of three eastern rivers namely Ravi,Sutlej and Beas were allocated to India for exclusive use.
• On the other hand,the waters of Western rivers namely Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab were allocated to Pakistan.
• But India can use the water in western rivers in non-consumptive needs. Here non-consumptive means we can use it for irrigation, storage and even for electricity production.

Permanent Indus commission(PIC):

• Permanent Indus Commission(PIC) was also established under the Indus water Treaty.
• Its mandate is to (a)establish and maintain cooperative arrangements for the implementation of the Indus water Treaty and (b)to promote cooperation between India and Pakistan in the development of the Indus water systems.

India’s Projects on Indus River:

• India has constructed the Bhakra Dam on Sutlej, Pong and Pandoh Dam on Beas and Thein (Ranjitsagar) on Ravi. 
• These storage works along with other works like Beas-Sutlej link, Madhopur-Beas link, Indira Gandhi Nahar Project has helped India utilise nearly entire share (95 per cent) of waters of the eastern rivers. 
• However, about 2 million acre feet(MAF) of water annually from Ravi is reported to be still flowing unutilised to Pakistan below Madhopur.
• For this,India is constructing several projects such as (a)Shahpurkandi Project (b)Ujh multipurpose project and (c)Ravi-Beas link below Ujh project.