A dam on the Indus river system, in Reasi, J&K.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said that the water saved due to the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan will be made available to Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan within the next one to one and a half years.
"The large quantity of water that was discharged towards Pakistan will now be brought and supplied to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan in the coming one or one and a half years," the minister said, addressing a programme to launch the drainage master plan of the national capital.
India’s decision to suspend the decades-old Indus Water Treaty, treaty follows the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
The Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the use of the Indus river and its tributaries -Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Jhelum, and Chenab-between India and Pakistan since 1960.
Under the treaty, India was granted exclusive rights to the water of the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi -- amounting to an average annual flow of about 33 million acre-feet (MAF).
The water of the western rivers -- the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab -- amounting to an average annual flow of around 135 MAF, which was largely allocated to Pakistan, has now been stopped and is available to be used by India.