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International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Research (IJECR) ISSN 2250-0006 Vol. 3, Issue 2, Jun 2013, 63-68 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

INDUS BASIN MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACTS ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF BRITISH

ADNAN NAWAZ1, MUGHEES AHAMED2 & BILAL BIN LIAQAT3 1,3Lecturer, Department of Political Science &International Relations, Government College University, Faisalabad, 2Chairman/Associate Professor, Political Science &International Relations, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Indian sub-continent is considered to be one of the most fertile areas of the world in agricultural point of view. It was given the name of golden sparrow in the British era because of agricultural fertility which is due to the presence of ample amount of water in this region and Indus is one of the largest resources in this regard. It has 1000 years of long history but British introduced new water management plans to get better results but it has many side effects as well. The present study examines the problems originated in the British raj which exacerbated the water related problems after decolonization. The wastage of water reservoir, the salinization effects and its impacts on the economic conditions of the people of this area are also discussed in this piece of study.

KEYWORDS: Indus Basin, Salinization, Water Conflict, Water Management, Irrigation

INTRODUCTION

Indus is known to be the cradle of one to the earliest civilizations i.e., the Harappa and the Mohenjo-Daro. This rivers basin, long before independence, was considered to be the largest irrigation system in the world on which about 50 million people were dependent and it was having the capacity greater than the Nile’s flow (Edward & Asher, 1973 , p. 610) .The originates from the spring located near the lake Manservor. It is present about 18,000 feet above the sea level in the Tibet plateau. It flows in the north-west direction in the upper side of its catchment. It comprises of thirty two tributaries which joins the river along the whole flowing area (Uttam Kumar Sinha, 2008). Its total length of 2880 km and comprises of the total 1,165, 500 km2 of the drainage area (Fowler, 1955, p. 120). It joins the and Soan River at the region of Kalabagh.

This river passes through the region of after taking its origin form the Tibetan Plateau. All the main tributary of the Indus River joins at Kot Mithon which comprises of five major rivers i.e., the Ravi, The Bias, the , the Jhelum and the Chenab.The Punjab area is the region where five rivers joins the main river and all major tributaries of the Indus river lie in Pakistan except part of eastern ones.

The Indus delta comprises of flat land and ultimately this river enters into the .The main rivers of the Indus Basin are as follows; (H.Siddique, 2010)

The enters in Pakistan from the Indian side, originates form Himalaya range. The Chandra that is a tributary located in the Indian side enters the Kashmir valley the height of 6000 feet. The originates from the Pir Punjal range. This river after crossing Srinagar flows through Wohler Lake joining at the junction of the Neelum and the Jhelum rivers. The is called as Kishanganga in the Indian side. The joins the Jhelum River 64 Adnan Nawaz, Mughees Ahamed & Bilal Bin Liaqat below the area of which is situated on the Jhelum River. The River and the Neelam River are two mean tributaries of the Jhelum River.The Sutlej River flows through the Indian Punjab near the area of Ferozepur and enters in the Pakistani territory the total length of this river is about 964 miles.The is the smallest of the five rivers of Punjab having the total length of about 559 miles. The Bias River originates near the Pir Punjal range. It lies almost entirely in the Indian territory.

Indus River as a Base of Economic Development: An Analytical Note

The Indus River is an international river which flows over the area of Pakistan, India, China (Tibet) and Afghanistan and a unique feature of the basin area is the presence of seven world highest ranking peaks after the Mount Everest.The records of the flow of water of the rivers of Indus Basin are noted at rim stations. There are three rim stations to measure the quantity of waters of the Western rivers. One is at Kalabagh and other are at Mangle and Marala. At Kalabagh, the inflow of the Indus rives is measured. The Mangla rim station is for the Jhelum river and the Marala rim station measures the flow of the Chenab river. (H.Siddiqui, 2010). Thus the measurement of these three rim stations corresponds to the total inflow of water in the areas of Pakistan. The Indus catchment area includes, the Sutlej having about 18500 square miles, the Jhelum of 13000 square miles, the Chenab comprising 10500 square miles and the catchment of the Bias is 5600 square miles and the Ravi is 3100 square miles. (Fowler, 1955)

The Indus Basin is constituted by the waters of melting of ice, snow and the precipitation in that area. The flow originates more from Indian territory (69%) as compared to Pakistan i.e., 19% .Around 12 % of the flow originates in the areas of Tibet and Afghanistan. Seasonal changes have important effect on the variation of precipitation level in this area. The average flowing rate is about seven times more during the months of monsoon i.e., July to September. (Gulhati, 1973, p. 27)

Most of the area of Indus basin is present in India and Pakistan. The following table explains the division of the total area of Indus Basin.

Table 1: Co-Riparian States in the Indus River Basin

Total Area of Area of Country in Per Cent Area of Basin Name Country Name Basin (sq. km) Basin (sq. km) Country in Basin (%) Pakistan 597,700 52.48 India 381,600 33.51 China 76,200 6.69 Afghanistan 72,100 6.33 Indus 1,138,800 Chinese control, 9,600 0.84 claimed by India Indian control, 1,600 0.14 claimed by China Nepal 10 0 Source: ASIA: International River Basin Register: The Trans-Boundary Freshwater Dispute Database

The total population inhabited in the area of the basin is 215.8 million. The per capita availability of water is only 1329 m3 annually. It is very low value as GBM (Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin) has 3473 m3 and Helmand Basin is having 2589 m3 of per capita water availability annually (Babel & Wahid, 2008) . The average flow of the basin also varies yearly as it depends upon the melting of snow on the glaciers and precipitation (Bengali, 2009, p. 48) .

The basin has the capacity of about twelve million hectares. Irrigation in this basin has a long history and it was after 1935 act that disputes arose between provinces about water availability. (Wolf, 2002) Indus Basin Management and its Impacts on Economic Development: A Case Study of British India 65

Since independence, there are many problems in regards with the water management issue in countries like India and Pakistan. Some problems like salinization, its effects over quality of water and regarding health issues, and the issue of allocation of water in upstream and downstream areas were even present at the time of British raj as well.

After the British arrival in the sub-continent, there had been a great improvement in the irrigation sector and as it expanded, it caused origin of new problems related to irrigation. There started the loss of irrigated fertile land due to the problem of salinization and it also contributed in health issues. It caused weakness in the body due to hazardous effects of chemicals and salts in the drinking water. The other side effects of increased canal irrigation were the water logging of the lower area. It took place in few years. The water table that was deep in certain areas i.e., about 100 feet and it started to rise continuously and dangerously. It became up to the surface of earth. The ultimate result of this was the wastage of the fertile land and large areas which were productive earlier became barren afterwards. In order to neutralize the salts in these areas, large quantity of water was required. Water was earlier utilized for the normal agricultural activities but when additional amount of water was given in the affected areas, new issue of water allocation and drainage raised. (Kumar, 1970, p. 708).This problem of salinization became worse at the time of independence. Lord Ritchie-Cadler was of the view;

“In the Indus valley in West Pakistan, the population is increasing at the rate of ten more mouths to be fed in every five minutes. In that same five minutes at that same place an acre of land is being lost through water logging and salinity.” (Ritchie, 1970, p. 216)

This situation was more critical in the areas of Punjab because the seepage of canals caused disastrous effects on land. This was also hazardous for health issues. (Kumar, 1970, p. 709)

Since the start of twentieth century, water allocation has become a highly disputed issue. The independence of the subcontinent resulted in the position where India became an upstream country in the Indus Basin. Only the Kurrum and the Swat rivers are not flowing form the Indian side and all the other rivers of Pakistan originate from the Indian side. There was irrigation by the canals of the Indus River. After partition, there was only five million acre of that irrigated land of Indus canals came in the Indian Territory. Twenty one million acres of the above mentioned land became the part of Pakistan. At the time of Independence, India wanted to reallocate the waters of the canal system so that it can gain maximum benefits of being an upper riparian state. (Malik, 2005)

The problem of water allocation and the salinization can be elaborated on the grounds that British were desirous of development of irrigate land more extensively but there was no integrated approach in that area and lack of storage of water also become hurdle to resolve the water crisis.

Although the process of irrigation was already present in the Indus valley before the arrival of the British but after their arrival, it flourished extensively. (Gulhati, 1973, p. 31) They improved inundation of canals and this helped them to effectively utilize the water of the Indus Basin. More head works were constructed in different areas to control flow of water. This resulted in the increased water availability in those areas. New canals were constructed in different areas and thus cultivable area was increase. Form the period of 1819 to the years of 1880, there was massive increase in number of canals so that the productive areas could be enhanced (Biswas, 1992, p. 202) Two main areas i.e., Punjab and Sindh became the part of British Empire in that era. An office of inspector general of irrigation was established in 1867. It was created to check the irrigation process throughout the territory under British subjugation. (Whitcombe, 1983, p. 700)

The extension of the irrigated land to those areas which were semi-arid in Punjab and other different provinces was the next step in the developmental process of the irrigation system of Indian Sub-continent. Until 1901, Lower Chenab 66 Adnan Nawaz, Mughees Ahamed & Bilal Bin Liaqat and lower Jhelum canals were in functioning to irrigate the land in the areas of Chaj and Rachna Doabs. (Whitcombe, 1983, p. 723)

The triple canal project which was established for the extension of the Jhelum and the Chenab system further developed the area. (Gulhati, 1973, p. 35) .This process of extension of irrigation was expanded in different provinces other than Punjab and Sindh. (Biswas, 1992, p. 202) The area extended from seven to thirteen millions of acres in five provinces in the short span of ten years. (Whitcombe, 1983, p. 714) . This was partly done for gaining the economic benefits from this area and to prevent famine was also one of the objectives behind the whole developmental process. Before independence, the desire for power generation and the agricultural use of water by upstream was demanded due to continuous diversion of the water. At the time of independence, around twenty six millions acres area was being irrigate by the Indus waters but it was not effective utilization of the maximum potential of the Indus basin. It was estimated that almost sixty five millions acres of land could be made cultivable due to the Indus water. (Gulhati, 1973, p. 39) The expansion of irrigation system was a miraculous work by the British in a very short span of time.

Although, British expanded the irrigation system of the major provinces but there was a serious lack of integration in the whole administration. It was observed that individual plans were made, new canals were constructed at different time and places but they were not a part of some master plan (Khosla, 1958, p. 239) . It culminated into a start of unending rivalry between Punjab and Sindh provinces as Punjab was an upper riparian region. It resulted into a water dispute between the two as the political and the economic factors played their role in highlighting it. So, it can be assessed that the indo-Pakistani dispute on water issue takes birth from the British mismanagement of irrigation process of the Indus Basin. (Gupta, 1960, p. 154)

At the time of independence there was the problem of water storage as there was no water storage on the Indus Basin. The water availability was an issue because if water is used by the upper areas of the basin, there would be less water for the downstream and vice versa. Upstream area would be deprived of water once it had flown downstream areas. In the season of monsoon, surplus water was available that could be stored if dams were there. These water reservoirs would also help in power generation and power potential of the area could be enhance. (Gulhati, 1973, p. 39). This escalated the tension between the upstream and downstream areas as water was unavailable throughout the year on the equal amount. There problems could be resolved on the technical grounds but it could not happen and thus the tension increased further.

CONCLUSIONS

Indus basin has played a crucial role in the economic prosperity of this region from the time immemorial. It is an established fact in the history that the march of Alexander along the river of Indus reflects the strategic significance of outsiders in this area. (Meadows, 1999, p. 420) The colonial period represented the British plan to utilize the Indus river basin as a route for expansion of their military and economic strategies and interest. Its expanding influence was against the Russian interests in Central Asian region as well as in Afghanistan. (Moorcraft, 1979, p. 114). The economic importance of water resources increased in the twentieth century in the Indian subcontinent. After getting more autonomy, the provinces demanded more share in the water resources and it was between the Sindh and the Punjab province where first conflict over the waters of the Sutlej river occurred. As Bhakra dam was being constructed in the province of Punjab to expand the irrigated land on the Sutlej river, the government of Sindh complained over the project to the Governor General and ultimately an Indus commission was established under the chairmanship of justice B.N. Rar. Both provinces i.e., Punjab and Sind rejected the report of the commission and appealed to the federal government. Their efforts went in Indus Basin Management and its Impacts on Economic Development: A Case Study of British India 67 vain and the issue was presented to secretary of state for India in early 1947. The conflict between the provinces of Punjab and Sind was the internal conflict as both were part of the British Empire. These disputes were at local level. Water was treated as a strategic resource for controlling transport i.e., commercial or military rather than as a commodity to fight over. (Whitcombe, 1983)Water resources are a great blessing to any nation. Due to inadequate measures and mismanagement problems, water reservoirs are now declining in this region. The main issues are same as were in British era in which India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are entangled and due to which economic prosperity of this region is hampered. Salinization problem could be tackled by latest technology. Water allocation problems can be tackled by an integrated water management approach. New dams and barrages can be helpful in this regard.

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