NEW DELHI: India is stepping up efforts to maximise its use of the western rivers of the Indus basin, the BBC reported on Friday quoting senior officials.
\nThe move would involve building huge storage facilities and canals, it said. The three rivers flow through India-held Kashmir but most of the water is allotted to Pakistan under an international treaty. The officials, however, said the move would not violate the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said a government task force is finalising details of the water project, which he has made a priority. Experts say New Delhi is using water issue to put pressure on Pakistan in dispute over Kashmir
\n\u201cThe ball has started rolling and we will see some results soon, most of them will be about building new storages in the basin,\u201d one top official told BBC on condition of anonymity.
\nAnother senior official said: \u201cWe are quite familiar with the terrain as we have already built a number of structures there.\u201d But he added: \u201cWe are talking about few years here.\u201d
\nThe report quoted unnamed experts as saying Delhi was using the water issue to put pressure on Pakistan in the dispute over Kashmir. There is also speculation that state polls in Indian Punjab could be a factor for the stepped up rhetoric.
\nIndia wants to \u201cmaximise\u201d its use of water from the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers. Millions of people in the two countries depend on water in the rivers.
\n\u201cAn official with India\u2019swater resources ministry insisted that this action would be \u2018well within\u2019 the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty,\u201d the BBC said.
\nIndia reportedly began reviewing the treaty after a militant attack in India-held Kashmir in September in which 19 soldiers were killed.
\nNew Delhi accused Islamabad of being behind the attack and relations deteriorated, leading to a rise in cross-border tensions.
\nThe IWT was signed in 1960 and allocated the three eastern rivers \u2014 the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej \u2014 of the Indus basin to India, while 80 per cent of the three western ones \u2014 the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab \u2014 was allotted to Pakistan.
\nIndia says it has not fully utilised the 20 per cent of water given to it in the three western rivers. Pakistan disputes this.
\nOfficials in Delhi said the IWT allowed India to irrigate 1.4 million acres of land using water from those rivers. But they say only 800,000 acres are irrigated at present.
\nThey added that the building of hydropower projects would also be accelerated.
\nIndia currently generates around 3,000MW of hydroelectricity from the western rivers, but the Indus basin is said to have a potential of nearly 19,000MW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI: India is stepping up efforts to maximise its use of the western rivers of the Indus basin, the BBC reported on Friday quoting senior officials. The move would involve building huge storage facilities and canals, it said. The three rivers flow through India-held Kashmir but most of the water is allotted to Pakistan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n