Determined to continue his doctrine of conciliation with neighouring countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken a courageous step to resolve an issue that has marred relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The water issues have vexed relations between all four countries which share contiguous borders and, despite India having signed the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan in 1960, Pakistan, a lower riparian nation, has accused India of constantly withholding Indus, Jhelum and Chenab waters allocated after tough negotiations. Bangladesh has been equally vocal about India’s inability to equitably share the waters of the Ganga despite the signing of the Ganges Treaty.
Mr A.K. Bajaj, chairman of the Central Water Commission, ministry of water resources revealed that India is now willing to provide neighbouring nations information on the water flows that emanate from India. “We have started giving them all the data (that they need) on the river flows. This will help, for example, end discrepancies in releases of water at the Farakka Barrage,” he said, citing one example. “We, however, are not willing to reveal data on the lean flow of the Ganges and the lean flow of the Indus for strategic reasons,” he said.