Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

Afghanistan is emerging as a regional hotspot in the water world, as both Indian and Pakistan take roles in dealing with the troubled country over water supplies.

India has been the more active, reportedly providing assistance to the country in its construction of 13 dams on the Kabul River. Water is scarce across much of the Afghanistan-Pakistan-northern India region, and Pakistan officials have expressed concern about the possibility that Afghanistan may impound some water which traditionally has gone to Pakistan irrigators.

The Indian Ministry of Water and Power has suggested signing a water use treaty with Afghanistan, though prospective terms are unclear.

Water shortfalls have been reported this year around the region.

Some saw it as a triumph, some where less pleased with the December 30 decision of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal in India to raise the overall height of the Alamatti Dam, to 524 meters from its current 519, allowing for more water storage.

The state of Karanataka “hailed the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal order on water sharing, describing it as a “New Year gift” to the people of the State which has responded to its long felt demand.”

But some spokesmen in the state of Andhra Pradesh, which is heavily reliant on irrigation water, said they were concerned it “will be adversely affected as surplus water calculated on the basis of 65 per cent dependability had been divided among the three States. Senior officials including Secretary, Major Irrigation, S.K. Joshi, remained tight-lipped beyond saying that the government could take a view after closely examining all the aspects of the judgment.”

The Krishna is the second-largest river in the peninsula of India. Wikipedia reports that “Due to the inter state nature of the river and the multiple parties concerned, disputes arose between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of the waters. The Government of India constituted the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969 under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. This was headed by R. S Bachawat a former judge of the Supreme Court.”

India may be winning a race with Pakistan to build a major new hydropower dam and plant. The spoils going to the eventual winner: Major water rights on the River Neelum, which runs through the two countries.

Pakistan has been trying to develop the Neelum-Jehlum Hydropower Project, which has a price tag of about $1.5 billion. But the firm which is contracted to build it, the China Ghazoba Group of Companies, has hit conflicts with Pakistan interests, and work has slowed.

Meanwhile, the Pak Tribune newspaper reported, “India is building the Kishanganga Hydropower Project on River Neelum that originates from held Kashmir and enters Pakistan. Under the Indus Waters Treaty between Pakistan and India, the country that will first complete and commission its project will have the water priority rights on the said river. The slowing down of the construction work on the Neelum-Jehlum Hydropower Project is not tolerable to Pakistan. The electricity generation capacity of the project of paramount importance stands at 969 MW.”

Pakistani officials have been quoted as saying they fear India will complete its project first, and wind up with critical water rights along the river.

One of the key native Alaskan corporations has begun a process leading to large-scale export of some of the Alaskan water under its control.

The Aleut Corporation said in August that it envisions exporting as much as a half-million gallons daily three freshwater lakes it controls on Adak Island. Adak is described in Wikipedia as “near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska’s southernmost town, Adak, is located on the island.”

The demand for the water is thought to be mainly in the form of bottled drinking water aimed at China and India.

The three lakes involved are Lake Bonnie Rose, Lake De Marie and Lake Betty.

Other water shipping proposals in Alaska, which unlike most states has far more water than residents seek to use, are making their way through the process as well.

One of those is from the Anchorage-based Aqueous Northern Holdings LLC, which July 19 asked the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for water rights at four Southeast locations.

Also, Texas-based S2C Global Systems Inc. said on July 7 it has ambitious plans to develop a “water hub” in India.

From its release:

S2C Global Systems, Inc. (OTCBB: STWG) today announced that within 6 to 8 months the company expects to start distributing fresh water from its first “World Water Hub” located on the west coast of India.

For security reasons the port will not be disclosed, however this first hub will include a berth for a Suezmax vessel (156,000 cubic meters/41Million USG), an offloading system to a dedicated tank farm and a distribution complex for packaged water. Within 18 months after that we will be able to switch to a very large class vessel (302,833 cubic meters/80 Million USG), as both the ship and the berth for her will be completed within this time frame. Contracts for the distribution hub and ships are being finalized.

The company will be able to sell from its hub bulk fresh water by way of smaller ships that can deliver to shallower ports, like Umm Qasr in Iraq (located within 4 days of India’s west coast). S2C will also sell fresh water in 20-foot containers with flexi-tanks (4623 USG) suitable for pharmaceutical/high tech manufacturing and packaged water (18.9 and 10L) for the consumer markets anywhere containers are delivered in south and west Asia from India.

India itself provides a particularly significant growth market for the packaged waters with a current population of 1.15 billion people, an emerging middle class and an increasing clean water shortage.

Our Alaskan mountain water is so pure it requires no treatment except to remove organics that might be present through the natural cycle. During its 30 day voyage from Alaska to the Arabian Sea we will protect the water using an “Ozonating” system in the ships holds.

Reports from Indian suggest that nation’s government may be about to press Pakistan over its claims to water in the two nations’ borderlands.

The Economic Times reported on April 6 that “During foreign secretary-level talks in February, Pakistan
had handed over a non-paper on water, listing a series of complaints and suggestions. India is now expected to respond to it. An initial study on Pakistan’s non-paper has concluded that the issues raised by Pakistan are `frivolous.’ It is also felt that the technical issues — which include timely sharing of data and information — could be easily resolved within the Indus Water Commission. The Pakistan government had started highlighting water as a major concern ahead of the foreign secretary-level engagement and this was taken up by elements like Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed in what is seen here as an attempt to whip up sentiments against India.”

No specific timeline was indicated.

India may be one of the greatest water hot spots in the next decades, as the site of exploding populations with water supplies that generally have been ample but may become significantly less so. Now a group of writers (edited by Ramaswamy R. Iyer) have put together what looks like the most comprehensive overview of water law and regulation in that country.

Water and the Laws in India is available through amazon.com.

Water law in India is substantially different from that in most western jursdictions. A review of the book says that “Summarising the essential themes of the book, Ramaswamy Iyer makes a few important points. A significant lacuna in our constitutional understanding of water is that it does not recognise water as a basic need or as part of the larger ecology, history, religion or culture.”