KL Report
SRINAGAR
A three-member team of the Pakistan Indus Water Commission concluded a two-day visit to the Kashmir Valley on Friday.
Sources in the government said the three-member team of the Pakistan Indus Water Commission, headed by Indus Water Commissioner Shiraz Jameel Memon, visited the Dal Lake and the Jehlum river in Srinagar on Friday.
The Pakistan team Thursday visited the Baramulla district in north Kashmir.
Official sources say the visit was part of the Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960.
Under the treaty, three rivers — Sutlej, Ravi and Beas — flowing from India into Pakistan are ceded to India; three others — Indus, Chenab and Jhelum — are ceded to Pakistan.
While India can build dams for water storage on the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, no water storage dams can be built on the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers that flow through Jammu and Kashmir into Pakistan.
All hydro-power generation projects on the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers in Jammu and Kashmir have to be built on a run-of-the-river basis, to comply with this treaty.
The purpose of the Pakistan team’s visit, according to official sources, was to check the levels of water in the Jhelum river, so a comparison could be made with the discharge of water in it once it enters Pakistan.
“This was a routine visit, one of those that takes place as per the terms of the treaty,” an official said.
