ISLAMABAD: The World Bank is handing over documents and designs of India’s Kishenganga and Ratle Hydroelectric power projects to the Court of Arbitration (COA) and neutral experts on Monday.
A Pakistani delegation, comprising the Water Resources secretary , the Indus Water Commissioner and other relevant experts are leaving for Washington today to present documents in the court along with the World Bank officials.
In 2016, Pakistan government raised objections with the World Bank over the design of the two run-of-river dams being built by India.
Pakistan contended that after completion, both the Indian dams would impact the downstream flow of water in Pakistani rivers.
Though the process took five years, the World Bank has decided to hand over documents to the COA in 2021, where India has proposed to solve the matter through mutual consensus, however, Pakistan dismissed the idea due to the poor track record of India.
India is developing a 330 Megawatts (MW) Kishenganga Dam on the Jhelum River with a capacity to store 0.7 million cubic meters of water.
Meanwhile, the dual purpose Ratle dam and hydroelectric project with a potential to generate 850 MW of electricity is being developed on the River Chenab.
However, Pakistan raised objection on this matter that water storage capacity of these dams must not be more than 100,000 cubic meters as the designs of dams will impact the flow of water in rivers of Pakistan.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
