 | AFP
Sun Jan 16,12:25 AM ET
Indian Kashmir says 'dream plant' could ease power woes but Pakistan
objects
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Engineers in Indian Kashmir (news - web sites)
are working round the clock building an electricity plant that
officials say will ease the state's dire power shortage but which has
neighbouring Pakistan up in arms.
Pakistan, which fears the one-billion-dollar project could deprive its
wheat-bowl state of Punjab of a vital irrigation river, charges that
the plant violates a 44-year-old water sharing treaty.
But Indian Kashmir officials say the 450-megawatt Baglihar project on
the Chenab River in south Kashmir does not contravene the pact and
could go a long way to ending routine 12-hour blackouts plaguing the
Himalayan state.
"Given our disastrous power situation, the project will help end the
acute power deficiency," said Nayeem Akhter, secretary to Kashmir Chief
Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
The power shortages affect people most during the freezing winters.
With no electric heat, people spend the chill nights huddling around
stoves or clutching kangris -- pots for carrying hot charcoal -- inside
their clothes.
"Before I die, I want to see a day in my life when there is no power
cut," retired businessman Abdul Razak, 78, said in Srinagar, Kashmir's
main city.
Pakistan says it never approved the project's design as stipulated
under the Indus Water Treaty and has threatened to go to the World Bank
(news - web sites) which brokered the agreement to block the project.
The row comes as the two countries which have fought three wars -- two
over Kashmir -- inch forward in a bid to settle their differences over
all issues including the disputed region, which each holds in part but
claims in full.
The treaty bars India from interfering with the flow of the three
rivers feeding Pakistan -- the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum -- but
allows it to generate electricity from them.
The treaty is one of the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals' most
enduring agreements and has survived two wars between them.
Kashmiri power authorities insist the project, on which work began in
April 1999 and is due to be completed next year, will not store water,
thus cutting off the flow to Pakistan.
"We're complying with the treaty religiously," said Kashmir's
Irrigation Minister Qazi Mohammed Afzal. "There have been no violations
at all."
Engineers in construction helmets are working 24-hours-a-day on the
project, cutting through massive Himalayan rock formations and using
ropeways to get to hard-to-reach parts of the site on the banks of the
fast-flowing Chenab.
"It's a dream project that will become a main source of power," said
Abdul Aziz, a senior project engineer. He said the addition of 450
megawatts of power would reduce load-shedding -- the cutting off of
power to certain lines when demand is greater than supply -- by 20 to
25 percent.
The government plans to start work on a second 450-megawatt phase once
the first stage is completed.
Kashmir government officials fear halting the project will not only
keep the state in the dark but will also spell big financial
difficulties for the state.
The Jammu and Kashmir state government has taken loans from nine
financial institutions to fund the project.
"If Pakistan believes it's a friend of Kashmiris, it should not
jeopardise this project," state Finance Minister Muzaffar Beig said,
adding that it is vital for the region's economic development.
Kashmir has the potential to generate 20,000 megawatts of power, but
less than 10 percent of it has been exploited. Massive power theft has
compounded the state's woes with people refusing to pay power bills.
India has said it believes the dispute can be resolved with more talks
but Pakistan has refused and says it wants to consult neutral
arbitrators.
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http://www.dawn.com/2005/01/20/top7.htm
DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan
20 January 2005 Thursday 09 Zilhaj 1425
WB denies being treaty guarantor: Baglihar dam issue
ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The World Bank on Wednesday confirmed receiving
Pakistan's request for appointment of a neutral expert under the Indus
Waters Treaty to resolve its differences with India over the
construction of Baglihar dam on the river Chenab.
"The World Bank will examine the request and follow the procedures laid
down by the treaty," said an announcement made by the bank and released
by its resident mission in Islamabad.
The announcement also explained in detail the World Bank's role in the
matter but clarified that "it (the bank) is not a guarantor of the
treaty". It explained that "the World Bank is a signatory to the treaty
for certain specified purposes" and added that many of the purposes for
which it had signed the treaty had been fulfilled.
The bank said there were now three remaining responsibilities for it
under the treaty, relating to the settlement of differences and
disputes. Disagreements by the parties on the interpretations of the
treaty's provisions are classified into three categories, including
'questions' which are examined by the Permanent Indus Commission,
'differences' by a neutral expert and 'disputes' by a Court of
Arbitration.
According to the treaty, the bank said, it has three remaining
responsibilities to perform. They are: One, a role for the bank in the
appointment of a neutral expert.
The first step under the treaty is to resolve any 'question' through
the Permanent Indus Commission itself. If the 'question' is not
resolved there, it becomes a 'difference' and is referred to a neutral
expert, to be appointed by the two countries or by a third party agreed
upon by the two countries.
In the absence of such an agreement, the appointment of the neutral
expert would be made by the World Bank, in consultation with the two
countries. The decision of the neutral expert on all matters within its
competence shall be final and binding.
Two, the management of the World Bank of a trust fund to meet the
expenses of a neutral expert. Three, a role for the World Bank in the
establishment of a Court of Arbitration.
If the 'difference' does not fall within the mandate of the neutral
expert, or if the neutral expert rules that the 'difference' should be
treated as a 'dispute', then a Court of Arbitration would be
established.
Under the treaty, the World Bank has a role in the establishment of
such a court, said the announcement but did not say how long it would
take to complete the process.
Pakistan had announced on Tuesday that it had decided to invoke the
provisions of the treaty and written to the World Bank to appoint a
neutral expert after having failed to resolve the differences at the
level of the Permanent Indus Water Commission and bilaterally over the
Baglihar dam, being constructed by India on the River Chenab in
violation of the treaty. This is for the first time in the 44-year
history of the treaty that a matter has been referred to the World Bank
for arbitration.
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