India advances hydro projects

INDIA has advanced the start date of four under-construction hydropower projects in the Kashmir region by months after suspending a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan that had slowed progress, according to an industry source and a government document.

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The updated schedule for the projects, whose construction Pakistan generally opposes because it fears it would lead to less water downstream, is another sign of how India is trying to take advantage of its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 following a deadly attack in Kashmir last month.

India has said two of the “terrorists” who killed 26 men at a popular tourist site in Kashmir on April 22 came from Pakistan, and has taken a series of diplomatic and economic steps against Islamabad as ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours nosedive.

Islamabad has denied any role in the attack, threatened legal action over the suspension, and said any “attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan ... will be considered as an act of war”.

Pakistan depends on the Indus system for 80% of its farms and most of its hydroelectric output.

The armies have exchanged small arms fire across the border every night for nearly two weeks and Pakistan says India is on the verge of a military assault.