Since Sunday morning, the water flow has been throttled by almost 90% of the usual volume that passes to Pakistan, according to Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, spokesman for Pakistan’s Indus River System Authority. The nation will be forced to slash water supplies to farms by a fifth if the flow remains curtailed, he said.After a week of discussions and hydrological testing, India began de-silting operations in the Baglihar dam and lowered sluice gates, reducing downstream flow to Pakistan by up to 90%, while similar operations have been planned for the Kishanganga dam, an official from the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation said on Sunday.
“We have closed the gates of the Baglihar hydel power project. We had done de-silting of the reservoir and it has to be refilled. The process was started on Saturday,” said a second official, who declined to be named.
India’s actions came within hours of Pakistan’s testing its surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Saturday, including banning of the docking of ships bearing the Pakistani flag in all ports of the country.
Pakistan #India # water # Chenab river #Kashmir#
