Pakistan said that India had almost completely stopped the flow of water through the border through the Chenab river while fears of a confrontation between the two neighbors go up as a deadly attack at the Cashmere held, reports Bloomberg.
Since Sunday morning, the water flow has been strangled almost 90% of the usual volume that passes in Pakistan, according to Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, spokesperson for the Indus River System Authority in Pakistan. The nation will be forced to reduce water supplies to farms by a fifth if the flow remains reduced, he said.
“It is unprecedented,” said Rana, adding that India generally holds water daily for electricity production but releases it every few hours.
The stifling of the river follows India by suspending the industrial water treaty of more than six decades with the neighbor in retaliation for the murder of 26 people from the cashmere held last month. The two countries have since derived a series of tit-form measures, including the ban on trade.
After suspending the treaty, India started working on Flushing Silt by two of its dams in the Kashmir valley, Reuters reported on Monday.
The tanks will have to be filled once the rinsing is finished and this could reduce the flow downstream to Pakistan, according to Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Aasia network based in New Delhi on dams, rivers and people, which studies the social and environmental impact of water-related projects. The Industry Water Treaty now suspended only allows during the monsoon season, he said.
“Overall, there will be no reduction in water flow,” said Thakkar. “It’s temporary. Everything that happens, circulates. Only the flow model can change.”
Rana also said that water could be released later because India does not have the ability to store it permanently.
