Interestingly, the strategic importance of the CPEC has once again become a flashpoint during the most recently concluded Pak-India war, highlighting its scope, utility and multidimensional productivity for Pakistan’s socio-economic prosperity, energy and food security, agricultural cooperation and, last but not least, hydro-power generation.

It seems that India has self-coined a “New Normal,” which has schemed a “New End Game” in the region and beyond.

Unfortunately, the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has become the first easy “prey” of this strategy, although the World Bank’s President Ajay Banga has reaffirmed that the Indus Agreement between Pakistan and India cannot be “suspended” unilaterally, emphasizing that any changes to the treaty require mutual consent from both nations.

Moreover, India’s conditional linkage of the restoration of IWT with the complete eradication of terrorism vividly reflects its ill designs to steal or choke the water of the western rivers.

The Pakistani government has rightly termed the move as “an act of war,” warning it could disrupt the current ceasefire and prompt a “full spectrum response,” with the IWT emerging as a new flashpoint for political gains.

Alarmingly, studies indicate that around 30 MAF of Indus River water flows unused into the sea annually, while only 65 MAF of the diverted water reaches farmlands, with 36 MAF lost due to inefficient irrigation systems—resulting in a total waste of 65 MAF and estimated economic losses of US$21 billion each year.

The government of Pakistan should include numerous new hydro-power projects in CPEC Phase-II, focusing on the accelerated completion and desilting of existing dams construction of additional large dams at the federal level through a phased program, and development of........

© Pakistan Observer