oneObservers are concerned about further escalation between nuclear-weapon neighbors during the period of official peace between the two countries, amid the widest air strikes on Indian territory and ongoing shooting exchanges at the Kashmir border.
But, besides bullets and missiles, India threatens to use in another weapon Pakistan calls it, which will certainly constitute an "act of war": water.
According to Pakistan's armed forces, India's strike targeted Pakistan's Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project. The strike happened when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would block water from flowing out of its borders.
"Now, India's water will flow for the interests of India, it will be preserved for the interests of India, and it will be used for the progress of India," Modi said on Tuesday.
India suspended a 65-year-old treaty that ruled the moisture between the two countries late last month after "Pakistan continued to cross-border terrorism", citing April 22 attacks on Pakistani militant groups in India-controlled Kashmir, which Pakistan said Pakistan was not involved.
In response, Pakistan warns that any attempt to stop the Indian water flow located upstream “will be seen as an act of war and go all out within the full scope of national power.”
The Treaty of Indian Waters was facilitated by the World Bank in 1960 after India and Pakistan broke away from British rule and partition independence in 1947. The treaty divided the passages of six rivers in the Indus basin, allowing India to control the eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. While prescribed, Pakistan can maintain access to the Indus, Gillem and Schonab Rivers in the west. Given the two countries’ reliance on the Indian basin water supply system, the agreement became the basis for peace in the region to irrigate its agricultural land.
Indian commentary claims that the treaty is very "generous" to Pakistan, although it is located downstream to basically use 80% of the system's water. The treaty states that India cannot establish infrastructure that restricts or redirects the flow of western rivers, rather than limited agricultural uses and the generation of hydropower. Until the unilateral evacuation in April, India generally granted the treaty to it even after passing a war with Pakistan.
The suspension of the agreement poses a significant risk to Pakistan's economy, with agriculture accounting for almost a quarter of it. Regional water resources expert Himanshu Thakkar told the Kerala newspaper: "Most of irrigation, hydropower generation, electricity production and overall development in Pakistan are very dependent on the Indus basin." Mathrubhumi.
But it is not clear to what extent India has the ability to prevent water from flowing to Pakistan. Experts suggest that India currently lacks dam infrastructure and cannot fully control the flow of the river. Nevertheless, on May 4, India lowered the gates on the Bagrihar Dam, effectively reducing the downstream of Pakistan through the chenab River by 90%. The Indian era. A similar action is reportedly planned for the Kishanganga project on the Jhelum River.
Hassan F. Khan, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and program at Tufts University, wrote in a Pakistani newspaper dawn While India cannot simply stop water from flowing into Pakistan, its danger to the treaty will be felt more during the dry season from December to May: “The more urgent concern is that what happens during the dry season happens across the basin with lower flows, storage is more important, time is more important, time becomes more critical.”
Another way India can use water as a weapon is to retain flood data. Pradeep Kumar Saxena, a former Indian Indus Water Commissioner, told the Indian News Agency's News Trust in April that the country could stop sharing data with Pakistan after the agreement was suspended, which could be harmful during the monsoon season.