By Saeed Shah
ISLAMABAD -Flooding in Pakistan from water flowing downstream from India was made worse by New Delhi’s suspension of a river-sharing treaty and the collapse of the gates on an Indian barrage, Pakistani officials said on Friday.
Torrential monsoon rains ravaged neighboring adversaries India and Pakistan this week, with further heavy downpours forecast for this weekend. On Friday, in eastern Pakistan, flood waters hit the outskirts of the country’s second biggest city, Lahore, and threatened to submerge the major town of Jhang, in the worst flooding in almost 40 years in that part of the country.
The nations share rivers that originate in India and flow into Pakistan, regulated for more than six decades under the Indus Waters Treaty. That agreement was suspended by India this year, following the shooting of 26 people by militants that New Delhi said were backed by Islamabad, which Pakistan denies.
Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s Planning Minister, told Reuters that data on water flows which used to be shared by India under the treaty had not passed to Pakistan quickly enough, or in sufficient detail.
“We could have managed better if we had better information,” said Iqbal. “If the Indus Waters Treaty was in operation, we could have mitigated the impact.”
The middle section of Madhopur barrage, which spans the Ravi River in India, was washed away by surging water, video broadcast by Indian media on Thursday showed. Pakistani officials said that this damage unleashed an uncontrolled flow across the border, flooding some parts of Lahore on Friday.
An Indian government source denied there had been any deliberate attempt to flood Pakistan, while confirming that two gates of Madhopur barrage had broken.
Indian authorities were trying to stem the flow on the Ravi River, despite the damage to the barrage, and the flow was being controlled by the Ranjit Sagar Dam upstream, said the source, who declined to be identified, citing government policy.
“India is doing whatever can be done and all the information is being passed on,” said the source. “Incessant rain is causing this flood.”
India’s foreign and water resources ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the record.
India sent four flood alerts to Islamabad since Sunday, according to Pakistani officials, including a warning on Friday. New Delhi acknowledges passing on warnings, on humanitarian grounds, but has not provided details.
When India put the 1960 treaty into abeyance, it stopped the sharing of information between water officials. Instead, warnings were sent this week through India’s embassy in Islamabad.
Iqbal, whose own constituency of Narowal, near the Indian border, was badly flooded, said that climate change had made the annual monsoon less predictable, making it more vital to share data.
“Climate change is not a bilateral issue,” said Iqbal. “It relates to humanity.”
On the Chenab River, Pakistani authorities on Friday blew up part of the riverbank to siphon off some of the water into surrounding land, as it threatened to flood the nearby city of Jhang.
Pakistan evacuated more than 1 million people this week in the east of the country, away from the path of the three overflowing rivers that come from India.
This monsoon season so far, 820 people have died in Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. The flooded east of the country is home to half of the 240 million population and serves as the country’s breadbasket, with widespread damage to crops from the deluge.
(Reporting by Saeed Shah in Islamabad, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore and Krishna N. Das in New DelhiWriting by Saeed ShahEditing by Peter Graff)
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