India shuts off water supply to Pakistan from dam on river Chenab
Following through on its resolutions not to let a "single drop" go to the neighbouring nation from the Indus rivers.
India has shut off water supply to Pakistan from the Baglihar dam on the Chenab river and is also set to reduce runoffs from the Kishanganga project on the Jhelum, following through on its resolutions not to let a “single drop“ go to the neighbouring nation from the Indus rivers.
Following a week of talks and hydrological trials, India started de-silting work in the Baglihar dam and reduced sluice gates, cutting downstream flow to Pakistan by as much as 90%, while similar work has been scheduled for the Kishanganga dam, an official of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation stated on Sunday.
“We have shut the gates of the Baglihar hydel power project. We had carried out de-silting of the reservoir and it needs to be filled up. The operation was initiated on Saturday,” a second official, who refused to be identified, said.
India‘s moves came within hours of Pakistan‘s firing of its surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Saturday, including prohibition on docking of ships carrying the Pakistani flag in all ports of the country.
Kishanganga dam, the first mega hydropower project in the north west Himalayas in the Gurez valley, will also see huge maintenance activity “very soon“ and all flow from it downstream will be stopped. Pakistan has protested against the designs of these two dams.
India suspended the sixty–year-old Indus water treaty with Pakistan, already tense from decades-long rivalries, one day after militants had killed at least three dozen tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir on April 22.
The second official added, “as India has put the IWT into abeyance, we are considering all options for utilizing our river waters to benefit our own people.”.
On Saturday, officials of the Jal Shakti ministry informed the Union home ministry about a slew of steps being contemplated to increase water supply to northern states from the rivers of the Indus system. “We are prepared with strong punitive actions against Pakistan and almost 50 engineers of the NHPC are already in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir to monitor the operations,” the first official said.
In this regard, he stated that India has made consistent progress on four under-way hydel power projects along the Chenab river and its tributaries in Jammu and Kashmir and are expected to be commissioned in 2027-28.
These schemes — Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Kiru (624 MW), Kwar (540 MW), and Ratle (850 MW) — are being developed under a joint venture between NHPC and Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC).
Foundation stones of Pakal Dul, Kiru and Kwar hydel power projects were laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 19, 2018, February 3, 2019 and April 22, 2022, respectively.
