Pakistan decides to take Nimoo-Bazgo project to ICA

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has taken decision in principle to take up the controversy over Nimoo-Bazgo hydropower project having generation capacity of 45 MW with International Court of Arbitration (ICA) and has given a go ahead signal to Indus Water Commissioner of Pakistan (IWCP) for preparation on legal technicalities.

A senior official informed Daily Times that Ministry of Water and Power had given approval to IWCP to raise the issue with ICT over controversial Nimoo-Bazgo project on Indus River by India in total violation of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) 1960.

IWCP in its first ever visit to Nimoo-Bazgo project site found the project in total violation of the Indus Waters Treaty 1960.

Inquiry conducted by Secretary Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) holds Jamaat Ali Shah responsible for the delay in dealing with the issue. “Shah lost the opportunity to take issue to the court of arbitration and neutral expert,” Muhammad Imtiaz Tajawar said in the inquiry document.

Documents available with Daily Times revealed that IWCP, through the Ministry of Water and Power, sought the prime minister’s approval in January 2011 to write to the Indian Water Commissioner and notify him of Pakistan’s intent to resolve the questions on Nimoo-Bazgo. The request was approved on May 21, 2011. Appointment of a neutral expert or moving to court of arbitration will require another summary to the Prime Minister.

The country’s awakening is too much belated as India will be able to build the Nimoo-Bazgo project by July 2012 suffocating the water flows in Indus that guarantees life to the whole of Pakistan.

The 57-meter high Nimoo-Bazgo hydroelectric project is being developed in the Leh District on the Indus River. In addition, a 42-meter high Chuttak hydroelectric project is also being completed on Suru River, a tributary of Indus in the Kargil district of Indian-held Kashmir.

According to the findings of Pakistani experts, the Nimoo-Bazgo project would substantially reduce water flows in Indus River, as the project has spillways with too much depth of the dam wherein water will be stored.

The design of the gated spillways and depth of the dam clearly breaches the IWT. Pakistan raised five objections to the design and depth of the dam, but Indian authorities has refused to consider them.

With the gated spillways India would be able to regulate the water of Indus, which is not acceptable to Pakistan.

However, Pakistan has cleared another Chutuk hydropower, also being built on Indus River.

India has also managed to get approval of carbon credits amounting to $4,82,083 in seven years from the UN for Nimoo-Bazgo and Chuttak hydropower, which are not in line with the Indus Waters Treaty, after showing that it has got clearance report on trans-boundary environmental impact assessment of the said projects from Pakistan.