Kishanganga dam

[atifch]

The dispute over the 330-megawatt Kishanganga hydro-power project across the river Jhelum centres on the diversion of water from one tributary of the river to another. Pakistan says this violates Indus Water Treaty whereas India says the diversion is within the provisions of the treaty, which governs water sharing between the two nuclear rivals.

Kishanganga dam is located about 160-km upstream Muzzafarabad and involved diversion of Kishanganga (called Neelum in Pakistan) to a tributary named Bunar Madumati Nullah of Jhelum river through a 22-km tunnel. Its power house will be constructed near Bunkot in Indian held Kashmir and the water will be re-routed into the river Jhelum through Wullar Lake.

This diversion will change the course of river Neelum by around 100-km, which will finally join river Jhelum through Wullar lake near Bandipur town of Baramula district in Indian held Kashmir. Presently, Neelam and Jhelum rivers join each other near Muzaffarabad at Domail.

As a consequence of this 100-km diversion of the Neelum river, Pakistan’s Neelum Valley is likely to dry up and become a desert. The most important issue here is the diversion of the Neelum river waters to the Wuller lake.

Pakistan has made it known that such a diversion contravenes the Indus Water Treaty which would compromise Pakistan’s rights over the river and reduce the flow of water into Pakistan significantly. Further, any construction on the Neelum river upstream will affect power generation capacity of Pakistan’s Neelam-Jhelum power project.