n Govt left behind in Indus River project THE Pakistani government has been caught napping again and was left behind by India in securing credit incentives from the United Nations for the construction of two hydropower projects on the Indus River tributaries in Kashmir. Commenting on the subject, the Dawn newspaper in Pakistan said that the Pakistani governmen has “ordered three ‘investigations' into how India was able to secure international credit incentives from the UN for the construction of two hydropower projects on Indus River tributaries in the disputed region of Kashmir”. Excepts: As usual, a pass-the-buck mentality has various ministries squabbling on who is to blame for the fiasco. But when it takes the government over seven months to simply reach a conclusion that further “investigations” are necessary it would appear that again an all-round failure of the government has hurt the country's interests. There are many layers of questions here. For the UN agency in question to grant the carbon incentives to the Chutak and Nimoo-Bazgo hydropower projects, it appears trans-boundary environmental impact assessments were a prerequisite. It remains an open question whether some official here produced a favorable environmental assessment report for projects that other arms of the state believe are illegal under the Indus Waters Treaty. And if they were, how was that possible when some officials and departments believe the Indian projects are illegal? If that sounds preposterous, the alternative is that perhaps the UN agency dropped the ball and issued carbon credits in contravention of its own rules. In any case, for projects that were started in 2005 and for which carbon credits were granted in 2008, why has it taken the government of Pakistan until February 2011 to wake up to the need for an inter-ministerial investigation? The ineptitude is breathtaking. The recently released report by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on water in South and Central Asia contains this comment about the “33 projects at various stages of completion” India has on rivers it shares with Pakistan: “the cumulative effect of these projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season.” __
