pakistan should coperate in kashmir matter to get water which is more important to pakistan.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/feb-2003/10/EDITOR/edi2.asp
IT has been predicted that the wars of the 21st century will be about water, more than those of the 20th were about oil. One of the prime flashpoints will be the Indus Basin, split between Pakistan and India. The breakdown of the Baglihar barrage talks indicates how such a conflict might develop. Under the Indus Basin Treaty, Pakistan was allocated the waters of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, India those of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas. The headwaters of the Pakistani rivers are in Held Kashmir, and when there is hostility between upper and lower riparian states, the upper riparian also has the upper hand. The Treaty allows India to build run-of-the-river hydel projects on the ‘Pakistani’ rivers passing through its territory, but it is not allowed to divert or store the water. At Baglihar, the Indians are building what amounts to a storage dam, though they claim that it is actually merely a lock or a pond to improve navigation on the Chenab. Previously, a decade ago, India also built a barrage at Wullar on the Jhelum, which has significant storage capacity. Therefore, while India has not been diverting any water, it has certainly made preparations to do so on three rivers, and it is only a matter of time before it does so on the tributaries of the Indus, notably the Shyok and Shigri Rivers in the Northern Areas.
India’s moves on the Baglihar issue are significant, indeed sinister. There have been a series of statements from India’s highest officials, starting in December 2001, after the attack on the Indian Parliament building, threatening to repudiate the Indus Basin Treaty, and of turning Pakistan into a desert. Then the construction at Baglihar began without proper notice to Pakistan, and India delayed the convening of the Commission. Once the meeting was held, India refused point blank either to amend the designs as Pakistan suggested, or to allow an inspection as provided by the Treaty. The matter will now have to go to arbitration. Here too, India is certain to be dilatory, and to behave unreasonably. There is a method in this madness. It provides time to thus present a fait accompli to the arbitrator and to Pakistan.
As the lower riparian, Pakistan has few or no bargaining chips in this area. If Pakistan intends to depend on international opinion, it should not forget that India has never paid attention to this opinion whenever it comes to its own interests, no matter how selfish and unreasonable. As population growth and climatic change increase water shortages, India will be tempted to steal Pakistani water. Pakistan must be ready to all means necessary to prevent this. It must also be noted that the water dispute is largely because of the failure to settle the Kashmir issue, as the Pakistani rivers’ headwaters fall in Kashmir. A solution of the Kashmir dispute would also contain a lasting and comfortable solution of the water dispute as well.