Pakistan wrong on water claims, India says
India has suffered from shortages of water along with its neighbors in Pakistan, the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan said
United Press International | April 5, 2010
Pakistan said it would launch a formal challenge to plans by India to build a hydroelectric dam on a tributary to the Indus River because of the irrigation problems for area farmers.
Sharat Sabharwal, the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, said Islamabad was wrong to point fingers over water shortages in the region, the Khaleej Times in Dubai reports.
"It is wrong to blame India for the current water shortage in Pakistan," said the high commissioner. "In fact India too suffered serious droughts in 2009 and the rainfall during the monsoon season was 20 percent less than normal."
New Delhi said it has the legal right to build the dam, blaming Pakistani water shortages on weather issues and mismanagement.
Pakistan has its own plans for hydroelectric power from the river. Islamabad complains the project in India would reduce the flow of the Indus River by more than 30 percent.
Sabharwal said the Pakistani allegations have "nothing to do with reality."
The water issue complicates efforts by the two nuclear-armed foes to settle their differences.
A bilateral treaty signed in the 1960s governs water access from the Indus River and its tributaries.
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