India breaches Pakistan water-sharing treaty

NEW DELHI, 06 Feb. - (ANA) - India has dismissed Pakistani media reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government seeks to breach a decades-old water sharing treaty between the two countries, accusing Islamabad of covering up its own immense waste.

Prompted by press reports claiming India had drafted proposals to construct dams in the disputed Kashmir region in alleged violation of the Indus Waters Agreement, PK Saxena, New Delhi’s Indus Waters commissioner, said the allegations were no more than an attempt by Pakistan to deflect from its own “gross mismanagement of water resources.”

“The reports of India’s attempt of breach of Indus Waters Treaty has been rejected as false and far from reality,” Saxena told PTI, noting that Islamabad wastes roughly twice the amount of water allocated to India under the accord, which he said was “extremely generous” to Pakistan.

India and Pakistan share the waters of six rivers that flow through both nations under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, which has remained unbroken even through three wars.

But despite having access to a majority of the resource, Pakistan, according to Saxena, was recklessly misusing up to two-thirds of its own portion.

Observers believe that Modi is intending to do whatever it takes to harm Pakistan interests in India and the Kashmir saga is only one of many.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/06 February 2020 - - -