Kashmir dam ruling pleases both
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Residents look on as protester, unseen, shout anti-police slogans
during a demonstration in Srinagar, India, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007.
Protests holding photographs of missing relatives accused Indian
forces of killing innocent people and then claiming the victims were
Islamic militants. -AP
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The World Bank has given its verdict on a controversial
hydro-electric dam project in Indian-administered Kashmir. Both India
and Pakistan have claimed the order as their victory.
The World Bank was called in to adjudicate after Pakistan said the
Baglihar Dam would deprive one of its agricultural regions of
irrigation.
India says the project on Chenab River is crucial for meeting its
power needs. The World Bank appointed an arbitrator in May 2005 to
settle the dispute. Raymond Lafitte, a professor at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne, presented the report to the
diplomats from India and Pakistan in the Swiss capital, Bern.
Binding
The report has not been made public, but both India and Pakistan say
it backs their stand. The verdict is binding on both countries. The
report is understood to have over-ruled most of Pakistan's objections to
the dam.
Welcoming the report, India's Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz
said: "India's point of view has been completely upheld. The overall
design of the dam remains intact. We are very happy with the report."
But the report is believed to have said India must lower the height
of the dam by 1.5m (five feet) - which has been claimed as "a major
victory" by Pakistan's Minister for Water and Power, Liaqat Ali Jatoi.
Controversy
"The neutral expert has in his verdict clearly said that the design
of the project is in violation of the treaty, so this is good news for
Pakistan," Mr Jatoi said. Power minister in the Indian-administered
Kashmir's state government, Rigzin Zora, told the BBC that the World
Bank order on reducing the dam height "will not affect the power
generation capacity of the project".
Construction on the Baglihar Dam project was started in 2000 and it
was due to be completed by June 2006. The project ran into controversy
after Pakistan raised objections to the dam.
Islamabad argued that the dam violated the World Bank-brokered 1960
Indus Water treaty, which divided the rights of water from six rivers
between India and Pakistan. Mr Raymond Lafitte visited the dam site
before giving his verdict.
BBC
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