INDIAN THREAT TO SCRAP INDUS WATER TREATY CONDEMNABLE: FPCCI

CHAIRMAN Regional Standing Committee, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Ahmad Jawad has said that the apex trade body of the country condemns the Indian threat of choking off water to Pakistan. He said that it needlessly pits India against the people of Pakistan by playing on an insecurity that has a deeper psychological effect than the threat of a war.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, Ahmad Jawad said Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is an international agreement and India cannot revoke it. He said that if India were to build a barrage, then they take control to release water into the Jhelum river which could trigger a flood or drought towards Pakistani side.

In this regard, Jawad hailed the government decision to approach the World Bank and International court of arbitration.

The organization also called for proper water conservation and management strategy before water scarcity becomes a national security threat.

Jawad said industrialized nations in Europe have water storage capacity of 90 days but Pakistan, which is an agricultural country, has storage capacity of 30 days, which must be increased to one thousand days.

Pakistan has the world’s best canal system, but up to 50 per cent of water is wasted, he claimed. Around 145 million acre feet of water passes through the country, he said, and of this, a major portion is wasted. He said that per capita water availability, which was 5,600 cubic meters in 1947, has reduced to 1,000 cubic meters. The FPCCI said that the gap between demand and supply will reach one billion cubic meters in a decade.

Therefore, “he said, water should be declared a matter of national security to save the country from becoming a desert”.

He also said that we will have to overcome our differences over water and take steps to conserve it for which education of the farming community is essential.

Jawad also said that Pakistan has glaciers stretched over 13,680 km which will be gone within two decades. Rivers are drying up, leaving people with only option i.e., to use ground water, which, in turn is pushing down the water table.