Energy, water and the economy today

Pakistan Affairs · Economy and development. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Pakistan's farms and much of its electricity depend on one river system, the Indus. At independence the headworks of several canals lay in India, so water became a dispute. The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, negotiated with the help of the World Bank, divided the rivers: the three eastern rivers went to India and the three western rivers to Pakistan. Pakistan then built Mangla, Tarbela and link canals to carry western water to lands once fed by the eastern rivers.

The economy also leans on outside finance. The IMF gives short-term loans tied to reforms when foreign reserves run low. The World Bank lends for long-term projects. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor brings Chinese investment in energy, roads and Gwadar port.

Rules to remember

Indus Waters Treaty: signed at Karachi on 19 September 1960 by President Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Under the treaty as signed: eastern rivers (India): Ravi, Beas, Sutlej; western rivers (Pakistan): Indus, Jhelum, Chenab.
Mangla Dam is on the Jhelum; Tarbela Dam is on the Indus. WAPDA, the water and power authority, was created in 1958.
Sui gas field: Balochistan. Thar coal: Sindh. KANUPP, the first nuclear power plant: Karachi.
Pakistan joined the IMF and the World Bank in 1950.
CPEC, launched in 2015, links Gwadar with Kashgar in China's Xinjiang region and is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Common mistake

Students give Pakistan the eastern rivers. Think of the map: under the treaty as signed in 1960, the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) are Pakistan's and the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) are India's. The Chenab is the one most often placed on the wrong side.

Worked example

After 1960, farmland in central Punjab that had been watered from the Ravi and Sutlej still needed water. How did Pakistan supply it?

The treaty gave the Ravi and the Sutlej, both eastern rivers, to India.
Pakistan kept the western rivers: the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
Storage dams (Mangla on the Jhelum, Tarbela on the Indus) and link canals moved western water eastwards to the old canal lands.

Answer: By storing water of the western rivers and transferring it through link canals to replace the eastern rivers.

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