UNITED NATIONS
\nA senior Pakistani diplomat has told a UN-related event on global water scarcity that India had created an unprecedented crisis for Pakistan\u2019s water security and regional stability by \u201cunilaterally\u201d holding in abeyance the 1960 Indus Water Treaty which regulated water sharing between the two neighbours.
\n\u201cThis is not natures doing; This is a nation state deliberately weaponizing water,\u201d Ambassador Usman Jadoon, acting permanent representative of Pakistan, said at the roundtable discussion co-hosted by the Nations University (UNU) and the Canadian Mission to the UN on Tuesday, as he highlighted the material breaches; including unannounced disruptions of downstream flows and withholding of hydrological information that followed India\u2019s action on the six-decades-old treaty.
\n\u201cPakistan\u2019s position is unequivocal; the Treaty remains legally intact and permits no unilateral suspension or modification,\u201d he said. The event followed after the release by UN researchers of their flagship report on \u2018Global Water Bankruptcy\u2019 which calls for fundamental reset of global water agenda as irreversible damage pushes many basins.
\nThe Indus River Basin, the Pakistani envoy said, sustains one of the world\u2019s largest contiguous irrigation systems, provides over 80 percent of Pakistan\u2019s agricultural water needs, and supports the lives and livelihoods of over 240 million people, with the time-tested Treaty\u2019s framework providing for equitable and predictable management of the waters.
\n\u201cWe are a semi-arid, climate-vulnerable, lower-riparian country facing floods, droughts, accelerated glacier melt, groundwater depletion, and rapid population growth; all of which are placing immense pressure on already stressed water systems,\u201d Ambassador Jadoon said.
\nOn its part, he said, Pakistan is strengthening its water resilience through integrated planning, flood protection, irrigation rehabilitation, groundwater replenishment, and ecosystem restoration, including through initiatives such as \u201cLiving Indus\u201d and \u201cRecharge Pakistan\u201d to meet the challenges facing it.
\n\u201cYet systemic water risk cannot be managed by national action alone, particularly in shared river basins,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said, adding \u201cPredictability, transparency, and cooperation in trans boundary water governance are matters of survival for downstream populations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS A senior Pakistani diplomat has told a UN-related event on global water scarcity that India had created an unprecedented crisis for Pakistan\u2019s water security and regional stability by \u201cunilaterally\u201d holding in abeyance the 1960 Indus Water Treaty which regulated water sharing between the two neighbours. \u201cThis is not natures doing; This is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-526892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n