India and Pakistan have agreed on a roadmap for resolving differences over the sharing of river waters in the next six months, a senior official has said.
Pakistan's Indus Waters commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah informed the media about the roadmap and said both sides had decided to hold two additional meetings one at the end of March and another in June for "dispute resolution". Both meetings will be in addition to the mandatory one scheduled for May, he said.
Briefing journalists at the conclusion of a five-day visit by a team led by his Indian counterpart G Ranganathan, Shah claimed the Indian side had agreed to Pakistan's demand that all water disputes should be settled within an "agreed timeframe". "Indian has agreed that the solution of all water disputes must be time-bound as open-ended talks become counter-productive and breed confusion and frustration," he said.
Pakistan also conveyed its concerns to India, including worries about "dwindling water supplies in western rivers", he said. Pakistan was given preferential rights to the western rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. "The Indians have been told that reduction in supplies is affecting water transfer operation," Shah said. "We also pressed
on the Indians that the free flow of information, as required by the Indus Waters Treaty, should be made more efficient because obstructions in this regard may create problems for both sides and for the implementation of the treaty," Shah said. The Indus Waters Treaty protects the rights of both the upper riparian country (India) and lower riparian country (Pakistan). Both need to stick to their roles for implementing the pact, he said. Shah said Pakistan had also asked the Indian side to take steps to ensure that deforestation and environmental impact did not affect river flows on their side "as it was their duty."
The India delegation, during its five-day visit, inspected four water works on the Ravi and Sutlej rivers and left for home on Wednesday. Before leaving for India, G Ranganathan told reporters that both countries had signed an international treaty which had an elaborate dispute resolution mechanism. "Both sides are not only committed to the treaty's provisions but also regularly invoke different provisions to resolve disputes," he said. Ranganathan described his visit as a success and reiterated that India remained committed to the Treaty and that it was ready to resolve all disputes within its ambit.