Kashmir Floods: Between State Failure And Hyrdo Politics
By Ubaid Mushtaq
09 October, 2014
GreaterKashmir.com
Last month, when, India’s most wanted man Hafiz Saeed used the narrative of water aggression against India. Everyone was quick in rejecting these claims as baseless, funny and absurd. So, be it, blaming India for the recent catastrophic floods that wreak havoc across both the administered parts of Kashmir is downright absurd. Nothing but, ideology enforced charity. But, while doing a counter-narrative perhaps there is a word of caution here. There is something that we should focus our attention. It’s the changing politics over the water sharing between these two countries. And, with it an apparent, inextricable link, of the state of J&K. Which has so far been detrimental due to the restrictions imposed through different provisions of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
Water provision has become a major area of intervention by State’s over recent years. The state, worldwide is considering or tackling reforms in their organisational, operational policy making and other implementation measures over the governance and management of water resources. However, in case of Kashmir such provisions have to be accommodated through the provisions of the Indus water treaty. Wherein, India and Pakistan are playing as dominant and only players. The recent catastrophic floods have brought many new contentions and challenges for Kashmir and emphatically meddled it with IWT besides, exposing the faulty State institutions and policies thereof. Apart from revamping states flood management policies. There is an immediate need to find a long-term viable and strategic solution to prevent such calamities to occur again.
Already the State machinery is in shambles and their needs an entire revamp of different institutions and policy mechanism in place. Due to the flawed policies of irrigation and flood control Department of the state, continues dredging of Jhelum and its tributaries ‘Rambiyaar’ and ‘Doodhganga’ has likely deteriorated the flood situation across many parts, rather, than improving it. Continuous dredging is likely to cause the flood waters to move faster and more dangerously towards downstream. It can also cause infrastructure damage due to high sediment loads and can disintegrate any bridge or housing structures. This is quite evident, what we witnessed in recent floods. The destabilization of houses, various culverts, river walls and bridges can be directly linked to such activities. On the other side, the illegal encroachment across many low lying marshy areas and on different river banks directly increased the volume of flood waters and inundated many cities and towns. Which hitherto thought to be safe.
However, apart from immediately overhauling the state machinery and different policies thereof, the state also has more to offer in raising its genuine concerns over IWT. In the case of Kashmir region only, a meagre 0.5 MAF could be stored under general storage on Jhelum basin and that too only on various streams that form its tributaries. Subsequently, taking prior permission from the Indus commission for every new scheme is also intricate in this matter. The floods are a direct reminder that the participation of J&K as a main player in IWT has now become a need of the hour. The states objective of generating hydroelectric power can not only meet increasing energy needs but, will also help in holding and diverting large quantities of water and thus controlling effects of floods to a great extent. Various tributaries of Jhelum like ‘Rambiyaar,' ‘Doodhganga’ ‘Veshav and Lidder’ can be a good source of dams and can be employed in a good effect in order to meet energy needs and to reduce floods wars. Similarly, water from and to Wullar Lake can be well regulated in order to control future floods. The project though struck up from last 35 years needs a fresh beginning with a new approach from all players. Many experts believe that the project in no way could cause any damage for Pakistan as perceived. But, instead could regulate water storage system in Mangla Dam in PAK besides giving other benefits to agriculture. (See counter currents http://www.countercurrents.org/mushtaq210514.htm)
On the other side, from the ecological point of view under global warming and changing climatic conditions, it’s necessary to have an out of box thinking. There is an immediate need to find long term viable solutions to stop such calamities. The arguments surrounding the ecological impacts, environmental losses and other threats to downstream will have to efficiently deal with proper water governance in place. Policymakers in both the countries need to understand that the scope IWT needs to widen further in order to accommodate growing needs of the State. For India, economic relevance is more of hydropower, and it has already harnessed a significant potential of hydroelectric generation from Eastern flowing rivers. For Pakistan, which has already witnessed two catastrophic floods in 2010 and this year. Any kind of Dams, upstream, will not only help in reducing floods but will also helpful in meeting irrigation needs. Similarly, from J&K perspective the potential of Western rivers flowing through the State has not been adequately harnessed and instead has been source of problems for State. However, in order to tackle all these pressing issues, an all-inclusive and overarching vision needs to be articulated at different levels.
(The author is with Department of Humanities & Social Sciences IIT Bombay, Mumbai)
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