In keeping with its declared intentions to deny Pakistan of its share of water, the Indian government has moved further on a project to store water in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, reported by Indian media.
Looking to fast-track utilisation of water in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), the Central Water Commission (CWC) has finalised a detailed report on Ujh multi-purpose project and the government claimed that the proposal aims to harness water that was flowing untapped across the border. The project report has been submitted to the IHK government for evaluation so that construction may begin at an early date.
The project, which is to come up in Kathua district, will store around 0.65 million acre feet (MAF) of water from Ujh (a tributary of Ravi) to irrigate 30,000 hectares and produce over 200MW of electricity.
According to the newspapers, the government decided to take a relook at the implementation of the Indus treaty after PM Narendra Modi decided to do so following the attack on the Army camp at Uri in 2016. An inter-ministerial task force with Nripendra Mishra, principal secretary to the PM, and national security adviser Ajit Doval was formed to examine the IWT with Pakistan.
