Chenab tributary: Pakistan to suffer severe blow as India drawing 857 cusecs water daily

Southern Punjab, rather the whole of Pakistan, would be severely hit and millions of acres land would go barren as India has dealt another blow to Punjabs water interests by establishing the Tawi-Ravi irrigation system some four years back, with drawing 857 cusecs water on daily basis from the river, which is a Chenab tributary.
A senior official said that drawing of water by India would damage the irrigation of crops in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Jhang, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Narowal and Shakargarh. Water from Tawi rivers left bank at the Bahu Fort point in Jammu is lifted 31 metres by pumps.
Daily water sheets issued by Irsa also jolted authorities concerned as Chenabs historic flows drastically reduced from 18,800 cusecs to about 10,000 cusecs these days. A spokesman of Pakistans Indus Waters Commissionerate said he was aware that India had built the irrigation system. Under the treaty, he said, India could build such schemes to irrigate 1,300,000 acres land with western rivers water. "But under the Indus Waters Treaty, India is bound to inform Pakistan six months before initiating any water scheme or dam on Pakistans rivers," he pointed out.
But Irsa and the Punjab irrigation department are perturbed over the decline in Chenab River from historic average flows. Asked about the source of this sensitive information, the official replied that Arshad Abbasi, Director in the Planning Commission in the recent past and currently working as research fellow with SDPI (Sustainable Development Policy Institute), had informed the environment and water and power ministries about this through a letter.
The Indus System of Rivers comprises three eastern rivers - Sutlej, Bias and Ravi - and as many western rivers - Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, waters of the eastern rivers stand allocated to India and western rivers to Pakistan. However, India interlinked Tawi and Ravi rivers with the Ravi-Tawi Lift Irrigation Project, drawing up to 857 cusecs water daily from Tawi.
Under the Indus Waters Treaty, Chenab water was allocated to Pakistan and Tawi is a major left bank tributary of the river, which originates from the Kali Kundi glacier and the adjoining area south-west of Bhadarwah in Doda district.
The official said Abbasi also asked the government to check the irrigation provision as given in Annexure ìCî of the Indus Waters Treaty. The Ranbir and Partap canal systems were constructed by India before the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty. The agriculture use of water permitted to India from western rivers is 912,477 acres and over and above 642,000 acres of land being irrigated from the western rivers on the effective date April 1, 1960.
Abbasis letter said that with permissible withdrawals from Ranbir and Partap canals, India is entitled to water additional irrigated cropped area (ICA) of 70,000 acres from Indus, 150,000 from Jhelum and only 50,000 from Chenab.
Thus only 270,000 acres could be irrigated from western rivers but India has developed three major canals after 1960 - the Kashmir canal system, the high canal system in Jammu and the Ravi-Tawi Link irrigation system. New Delhi submitted the justification that India has not built any conservation storage on western rivers; rather it wastes about 35 million acre-feet water every year. India can develop irrigation by withdrawals from western rivers.