Union Minister Manohar Lal announced on Friday that the water saved due to the suspension of theIndusWaters Treaty with Pakistan will be made available to Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan within the next one to one -and-a-half years.
Speaking after unveiling the Delhi Drainage Master Plan 2025, Manohar Lal said, “Jaise kehte hain na, aapda mein bhi avsar hai (Sometimes disasters can prove to be blessings in disguise)… Sometimes, even in disaster, opportunity arises.”
He added that following the Pahalgam terror attack, theIndusWaters Treaty with Pakistan was “suspended”. “The large quantity of water that was discharged towards Pakistan will now be brought and supplied to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan in the coming one or one and a half years.”
The treaty, which had survived four wars, decades of cross-border terrorism by Pakistan, and a long history of antagonism between the two countries, was suspended for the first time by India in April after the Pahalgam terror attack, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, mostly tourists. The treaty, in effect since 1960, governed the distribution and use of theIndusriver and its tributaries between India and Pakistan.
Under the treaty, India was granted exclusive rights to the water of Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — the eastern rivers in theIndussystem – amounting to an average annual flow of about 33 million acre-feet (MAF). The water of the western rivers —Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — amounting to an average annual flow of around 135 MAF, which was largely allocated to Pakistan, has now been stopped and is available to be used by India.
