ISLAMABAD: A 10-member delegation of the Indian Indus Water Commission will arrive in Lahore on Monday to hold talks with Pakistani officials over water disputes.
In order to settle bilateral water problems through the 117th session of the Permanent Indus Commission, a delegation of ten Indian water specialists is scheduled to arrive in Lahore on Monday, crossing the Wagah border. Beginning on March 1, Pakistan and India will undertake negotiations in Islamabad to address their differences over water.
Indus Water Commissioner Commissioner Mehr Ali Shah will represent Pakistan, and Indian Commissioner for Indus Water Pradeep Saxena will lead the team from India.
In response, Mehr Ali Shah said that Pakistan opposes a number of the projects that India is engaged in. He enumerated the projects that Pakistan will bring up in the water talks: the 19.5 MW Sanko Hydropower project MW and Mangram Sangra on the River Indus; the 19 MW Turbok Shewk; the 25 MW Hunderman; the 15 MW Mandi project on the Pooch River in occupied Kashmir; and a 24 MW semi-culvert on the Indus River.
The 1,000 MW Pakal Dul and 48 MW Lower Kalnai projects were also discussed during the previous year’s talks. The commissioner said that the Indian group will return to their country of origin after the meeting on March 4. Notably, as stipulated by Article VIII of the Indus Water Treaty, which the two countries signed in 1960 with support from the World Bank, they meet once a year to discuss cooperation on the Indus River system. As required by the treaty, the commissioners must convene in either India or Pakistan at least once every year.
The last time they had met was on March 23–24, 2021, when a group from Pakistan paid a visit to New Delhi. This meeting took place after a two-year hiatus due to tensions between the two countries following the Pulwama attack in 2019 and the coronavirus epidemic in 2020. This was the official position, but tensions between the two countries have been high ever since India removed the autonomy of occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019, as this report from last year revealed. This has been a major factor in the delay.
After their last meeting, which went quite well, the parties agreed to keep in close contact to work out their disagreements. Pakistan had further asked India to reveal the project plans. In response, India stated that the data would be provided in line with the terms of the contract.
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