Pak delivers 4,500 mw shock

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Pak delivers 4,500 mw shock

A mammoth dam to generate 4,500 MW a day will come up on the Indus in Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir despite India’s objections.
The Pakistan government cleared construction of the $8.5 billion Diamer-Bhasha power project, which will reportedly be built with Chinese help, possibly workers who constructed the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest.

Pakistani officials privately said they expected an adverse reaction from India on the location of the dam.

India had in 2004 objected to the dam being built saying it fell in territory Pakistan illegally occupied and there was the danger of floods in Jammu and Kashmir.

The dam site is in what Pakistan calls its Northern Areas, which is directly administered by Islamabad, unlike the rest
of occupied Kashmir.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan is free to build dams anywhere on the river.

In New Delhi on Friday, the External Affairs Ministry and the Water Resources Ministry, both, refused to comment.

“We only react after getting confirmed reports,” said a Ministry of Exetranl Affairs official.

Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was out of the country and ministrry officials declined to comment.

The Pakistani Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the 272-metre-high dam would have a storage capacity of 6.4 million acre-feet and it would irrigate more than 33 million acres.

It would also help reduce sedimentation in the downstream Tarbela Dam.

The Diamer-Bhasha project is ten times the size of the 450MW Baghlihar project that India commissioned on October 10, 2008, in the Jammu region. Pakistan had gone to the World Bank against construction of the Baglihar dam, accusing India of violating the Indus Water Treaty.

The World Bank, which is a guarantor of the treaty, had appointed a Swiss engineer to settle the case.

The treaty gives India first rights over the waters of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas and Pakistan the same privileges over Indus, Chenab and Jhelum. One of the major reasons for Jammu and Kashmir not fully exploiting the hydro-power potential of these six rivers is the Indus Water Treaty.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has described the Treaty as a “ bottleneck for us to generate power from the rivers owned by Jammu and Kashmir.”

“ The treaty was signed long ago and both the countries need to re-visit its provisions and work out a formula under which Jammu and Kashmir can benefit by utilizing the waters of its own rivers”, the chief minister maintained.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Pak-delivers-4-500-mw-shock/H1-Article1-445742.aspx
 

Yusuf

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Easy counter. Announce a unilateral withdrawl from the indus water treaty and announce projects on indus. When no water flows there, the dam will me nothing but some useless masonry.
 

natarajan

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Our netas dont have that much guts to do it as pak is under usa belly and it will bow to them and fool us by saying something lol
 

p2prada

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What a waste of time.

The point is Pak is building in PoK and all the power generated will be diverted to Punjab rather than develop Gilgit and the other parts in NWFP.
 

sky

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weather you believe in globaling warming or not,the future will be diffrent from the past,so i think both countries do need the go back to the drawing board.the shortage of water will create tensions for both sides,we only need to watch tv to see the monsoon this year will cause problems for farmers now and us later.water is life so to get a agreement with pak will be hard ,but we need to make a start now.
 

thakur_ritesh

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as if this project is going to take off. to make an announcement and to get started are two different stories, and pakistan is miles ahead of us on this front, the only thing that moves in pakistan is when it comes to purchasing of military hardware and it all ends there. to begin with one is sure to witness protests against the dam by the locals who live in close vicinity, in a democratic system political parties are not far off from taking political millage and make this a political issue which helps in votes being churned in your favor and hey dont forget the environmentalists to have their fair share of say and protests.

then there is a bigger headache for the pakistanis and that is the reaction of indians and the future course of action india initiates on this. world bank can any time be dragged in if india so wishes, if the things go in india's favor though i doubt that happening but if they do go in our favor thats the end of the story of this project, but if that does not happen india as suggested by yusuf will most probably announce multiple projects on the river on india's side as it is the water flows down stream from india's territory and the open criticism by omar abdullah about the indus water treaty as also india's claim of j&k being flooded can be seen as a ground work being prepared for such projects to take off in larger numbers in future if pakistan attempts anything of the sort as suggested.

if india were to even talk about this in the open, it would be a nightmare for pakistan, the implications of which would be drastic for pakistan. leave alone a dry dam where 10b usd (as per today's calculations) go a waste but a prospect of no water for irrigation and no drinking water is much more troublesome for any government in pakistan. would pakistan try and take things to that extent, i doubt, it is like playing with fire where they are ought to burn themselves.

one doubts all this being sorted out any time soon, pakistan says the project should be finished in another 8-10years time, one doubts the first brick being laid in another decades time from now, its more of a dream announcement, best left as one of those dreams that never get fulfilled.
 

Yusuf

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Even if this project was materialized, the first people to raise their voice will be those in Gilgit. As it is their is discontent there.
Water is going to be the reason for any future conflict between the two countries. Kashmir issue is now more than acquiringa chunk of land with same religious majority as Pakistan. It's more about access to the lifeline that flows through there.

I think India has so far missed the trick to solve the Kashmir issue. Threaten Pakistan with water and force a solution.
 

thakur_ritesh

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yes quite clearly the future cause of tensions between india and pakistan is surely going to be the water issue and it is pakistan this time that is going to be on the receiving end for a change. kashmir even today seems to be an issue put in the backburner and is like just another issue. even in the joint statement at cairo there was no mention about kashmir, so we have already traveled a fair distance from kashmir being the sole issue of discussion or the issue around which all other discussions depend, but still i will give credit to both the nda and upaI for coming thus far on the kashmir issue, and a job well done at that, and imagine all this happening when pakistan was under the rule of a military dictator.

pakistan as such seems quite suspicious of india's intention behind the construction of baglihar dam and they are already nervous of india turning pakistan into a barren land where even the very basic to life like water they will have to depend on us and when things come to the very basics of sustaining life then every other cause is forgotten and looking at the reactions coming from a nervous pakistan, india does seem to have learnt its lessons that the core issue needs to be made the water and none other and it seems we are working on that, as they say with this issue we have pakistan by the collar.

but still with the first para i wanted to highlight the sheer hard work india has put to make kashmir a non issue and we need to give due credit to indian politicians and diplomats alike for that achievement, though kargil did play its part but still india did not let that one episode go by as a by gone and made full use. the water issue is sure to make kashmir more irrelevant in days to come, and the only people going to talk about it are going to be a section of pakistanis.
 

musalman

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What a waste of time.

The point is Pak is building in PoK and all the power generated will be diverted to Punjab rather than develop Gilgit and the other parts in NWFP.
Actually no, it will go into the National grid,not in punjab. The electricity will go to all areas of Pakistan. Same as Kot Addu and Muffarfargarh power electricity goes into the National grid.

2nd WAPDA the national power company is mainly managed by the ppl from NWFP :) so there are no chances of undue Punjab influence as u think
 

rubyjackass

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DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Bhasha dam

The Bhasha water reservoir is to be located in the Northern Areas and power is to be generated in the NWFP. The dam could cause a heated debate between the two regions over hydropower royalties.
J&K is not getting anything from the project except flooding of a large number of villages. Power generation for NWFP, canals for the whole of the country. Northern Areas is simply being exploited like Baluchistan is for its mineral resources. What could have been a money generator for Kashmir is twisted and tweaked so that the 'real' Pak gets the benefits and J&K gets... well it gives the land for the project, what does it get ?

Both China and Pakistan may be trying to get at India for their own reasons. China for Arunachal Pradesh-ADB affair and Pakistan for the Baglihar embarassment. See both the situations combine together in case of this Bhasha dam very conveniently for them. :O

Even if J&K were independent, it would have said no to the dam, well. at least for the current design of the dam. India should bank on the local people's support on this issue. The real motives of those kuhana nationalists of Kashmir will come out now. Are they going to sacrifice Kashmir's interests or stand up against Pak for an unfair deal like this?


To conclude the Bhasha dam project is an instrument of plain exploitation. India should try to stop this at any cost with the help of Kashmiri government and people.
 

natarajan

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Actually no, it will go into the National grid,not in punjab. The electricity will go to all areas of Pakistan. Same as Kot Addu and Muffarfargarh power electricity goes into the National grid.

2nd WAPDA the national power company is mainly managed by the ppl from NWFP :) so there are no chances of undue Punjab influence as u think
kamran, kashmir is integral part of india and building anything on illegally occupied part is illegal anyway let pakistan build all infrastructure and after it is fully done we will take over it :wink:
 

Vinod2070

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Excellent points, Ritesh. I would add that any protests by India would kill any funding for the project and Pakistan can ill afford the costs on its own.

India has to use the water tap to permanently close the terror tap from Pakistan.
 

natarajan

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as we all know how chinese are working to stop funds to arunachal pradesh but is our netas atleast knows anything like it to implement in pok as it is disputed
 

Vinod2070

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Actually no, it will go into the National grid,not in punjab. The electricity will go to all areas of Pakistan. Same as Kot Addu and Muffarfargarh power electricity goes into the National grid.

2nd WAPDA the national power company is mainly managed by the ppl from NWFP :) so there are no chances of undue Punjab influence as u think
The same way the Baloch are benefiting from their gas?
 

Yusuf

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Excellent points, Ritesh. I would add that any protests by India would kill any funding for the project and Pakistan can ill afford the costs on its own.

India has to use the water tap to permanently close the terror tap from Pakistan.
Not only force the issue on terror but put an end to tbd Kashmir dispute itself as I mentioned before.
 

Vinod2070

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Not only force the issue on terror but put an end to tbd Kashmir dispute itself as I mentioned before.
Yes, this is one way to make them realize the fact that they have a choice to either forget Kashmir or forget Pakistan.
 

rubyjackass

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@Musalman: Like there are large industries in Kashmir that would utilize the electricity. They don't even have a local government that haggles for their share.
 

musalman

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You do not understand, Pakistan has a National Grid , you know the main trunk line which connects all parts, any new electricity goes into this line.
 

musalman

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kamran, kashmir is integral part of india and building anything on illegally occupied part is illegal anyway let pakistan build all infrastructure and after it is fully done we will take over it :wink:
LOL this is what we say too :) our Shahrag !!!

The same way the Baloch are benefiting from their gas?
There is a misconception here too. Gas is not coming from Baluchistan, its mostly from Sindh area which is benefiting both Baluchistan and Sindh. We in Punjab and NWFP gets a lil gas from Sui Baluchistan mostly from Sindh area, Gurguri in NWFP and Northern Punjab associate gas fields. Baluchis has no issue regarding usage they issue regarding royalty which is 12.5% of cost of gas, but the problem is that Sui is an old field therefore its price is not as high as fields in Sindh.

@Musalman: Like there are large industries in Kashmir that would utilize the electricity. They don't even have a local government that haggles for their share.
As far as I know there is a Hino Truck plant there, plus Fiat Motor also have a plant there.
 

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