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Islamabad, Nov 12 (ANI): Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner Jammat Ali Shah has blamed India for violating the Indus Water Treaty by constructing Kishanganga, Nimoo Bazgo and other hydropower projects on rivers Chenab, Indus and Jhelum.

Briefing the Prime Minister’s Inspection Committee (PMIC) in a meeting on Thursday, Shah said that India had plans to construct over a hundred hydropower projects on the three rivers (Jehlum, Indus and Chenab), which would affect not only the flow of water in Pakistan but also the environment of the region, the Daily Times reported.

India had nearly completed the 22-kilometre tunnel to divert the Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, and was working to complete the 330 MW project by 2016, he said.

The project would severely affect Pakistan’s right over the river, reduce the river’s flow into Pakistan and minimise its power generation capacity of the 969 MW Neelum Jhelum hydropower project near Muzaffarabad, he added.

“With the diversion of water, Pakistan would face deficit of 21 per cent water which would reduce 16 per cent power production, causing a loss of about 5 billion rupees in one year,” he argued.

He informed that the next meeting between the two countries on the issue of Kishanganga Dam was expected to be held in January or February.

Pakistan also has reservations on the Wullar Barrage in Kashmir, where India plans to store water and then tunnel it to the Wullar Lake, where it is constructing an 800 MW powerhouse.

Pakistan believes that Wullar Barrage can be used as a geostrategic weapon with the potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan (upper Jhelum, upper Chenab, Lower Bari Doab canals), and can also badly affect the Neelum-Jehlum hydropower project, Shah said. (ANI)