India to flush all dams on rivers flowing to Pakistan

Flushing wasn't possible earlier because of the Indus Water Treaty, which is now in abeyance

- Rituraj Baruah

With the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, India now plans to regularly flush out the waters at all hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir built on rivers flowing through to Pakistan, three people in the know of the developments said, as New Delhi continues to tighten the screws on Islamabad.

The plan is to carry out flushing or desilting that requires releasing a large volume of water from a reservoir to clear accumulated sediments, at least once a month during the monsoon season, said the three people aware of the matter.

This was not happening earlier on a regular basis because of the restriction placed by the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.

With India now holding the treaty in abeyance following the 22 April terror attack in Pahalgam, New Delhi plans to conduct such exercises, as and when required according to operational necessity, without giving Pakistan any advance notice or sharing data with it.

Jammu and Kashmir is home to about 20 hydropower projects with an installed generation capacity of 3.5GW.