starting with sites just normal rhetoric
the floods are considered a hazard in
national calamity and their control has
been desired in many societies of human
beings India in 1988 and Pakistan in
1992 suffered floods on Indian side by
us and subtle rivers were the ones which
were flooded on the Pakistani side
it was JLM river there are some
similarities in the two events and
that’s why I put these two years and
these two firsts together 1,500 lives
were lost in India and 1,000 in Pakistan
there were large dams on Sat Lodge and
biast bara and poem gam in India and
there was a very large dam on river
Jhelum on Enders on both sides of the
border when these dams were about to be
built people of the countries were told
that after these dams are built they
would be floods no more people believed
but then after the floods people turned
against Beebe MV which was baccarat a US
management board for their mismanagement
because people believe floods cannot
happen the dams are there and if still
the floods are there that means there’s
something wrong with the management same
was the case with Pakistan people blamed
water for the mismanagement in both
countries these two departments aren’t
bad repetition however there was one big
difference between the two countries
chairman BBMP was short dead two months
after the floods
nothing happened to chairman Bob de 1992
floods was a very eventful even
personally for me as a young engineer I
was doing some duties in the flood
control center of southern Punjab in
Bolton and I was wondering that via
despite having such a big dam there were
floods in the river and I was asking
this question from my seniors because I
didn’t have the answer to this question
and I never got a satisfactory answer a
big flood wave was moving in river
Jhelum approaching Volta and down in the
flood control center there was confusion
there was panic and there was ignorance
fast forward to 2018 it’s been a while
since then we just had water policy
announced a few weeks ago and this
Clause twenty point four twenty point
one point four it reads the safety of
dam embankments spillways abutments
foundations and all other hydraulic
structures will not be placed at risk
under any circumstances under any
conditions in other words what this
policy Clause says
let the people go to hell we will save
the structures first but your article 9
of Constitution says no person shall be
deprived of life or Liberty it’s
disclosed now not in conflict with the
with the constitutional provisions
should it not say that the safety of
persons come first and structures later
now
this practice of this policy Clause is
an old one this is what happened when
gates are found them and Bhakra dam were
open and people were drowned in India
this is what happened the same standing
procedure was followed in case of Mangla
and people who are drowned to save
structures and the same procedures were
followed in the floods of 2010 when
several breaches were made deliberate
breaches to save the structures those
those barrages and levees and people
were drowned but today this act of
criminality gets a legal cover in our
water policy this is quite unfortunate
you know water wars like any other war
water wars are a curse water war start
the moment you build a dam you start
thinking of for them and a war breaks
out the water wars are not fought with
conventional weapons
water wars are fought with dams
diversions and deceitful treaties this
is how Pakistan and India got into water
wars since their very beginning back in
December 1947 a standstill agreement was
signed between India and Pakistan and
that was a deceitful treaty then again
in May of 1948 and other agreement was
signed which was called Dominion accord
and that was again a deceitful treaties
these deceitful treaties were followed
by building of dam here and a dam there
a dam in Pakistan a dam in India a
diversion in Pakistan a diversion India
single act of damn diversion and treaty
was an act of war and these are the
weapons of water wars water wars are
fought with these weapons because the
moment you built a dam the communities
downstream the community upstream they
start arguing with each other we are
doing these wars since our beginning we
signed an interest Basin treaty again
admissible treaty and we are still not
happy with what happened after that that
that city or before that treaty and
people in India are never happy to and
what we got out of those treaties are
killing our own people now these dams
divergence you know once these wars
start they never end mistress animosity
it develops it deserves peace in the
region at all scales you know if you go
to the canal commanders of Pakistan the
farmers will be standing with guns and
other weapons in their hands when it is
time to water their fields because they
are fighting with their upstream
neighbor nobody takes my water nobody
wants to give up his water and they’re
armed there are there are killings if
you go to the record in police in
Pakistan you will find out so many
people have been killed in our rural
areas where these dams and diversions
are providing water then bigger national
calamities are magnified you know these
dams they protect you from small little
floods you become compression that
floods don’t happen and when a bigger
flood happens which is beyond the
capacity of the dam the calamity is
actually magnified if a dam was not
there there would have been less of a
damage that is why they say floods are
the acts of God flood damages are the
acts of man then silent
but incessant environmental degradation
and some sections of the society they
pay a very heavy price for this
environmental degradation generally as
an environmentalist when we talked to
the people there is a concept that oh
these are the tree hugging frog loving
people they are there for birds and bees
and they don’t care about progress well
we might care about birds and bees and
the fish and the frog but what about
these people they are the victims of
environmental degradation their houses
their living their properties are being
eaten away by water logging and salinity
which is a byproduct of your dams and
diversions agriculture fields once
thriving agriculture fields now
underwater logging destroyed by salinity
these hundreds of acres of land ask the
person who lost this land who owned it
and doesn’t own it anymore or can’t use
it anymore can’t sell it and then this
is what we are getting in the 21st
century somebody comes and tells us hey
dig a drain that will drain away your
salts that will drain away your water
logging and if you happen to stand by
this thing you know it’s very easy to
see it in the picture still not very
appreciative but if you are actually
standing right in front of that drain it
smells it stinks you can’t stand there
for a longer time if you are not used to
it
and it is a breeding ground for
mosquitoes and disease vectors it is a
nuisance in the landscape and where this
water is coming from which is calling
all this salinity and water logging and
those disgusting drains this water is
coming from here look what Nature has
given to you those glaciers are the best
source of water anywhere in the world
those Himalayan & korek are embellishes
and those streams which are emitting
emanating from those glaciers they are
the ones feeding your rivers your rivers
have got the best possible quality of
water
anywhere in the world because they are
gracious fed rivers and after doing a
lot of engineering this is what you give
to your people this is a drinking water
source in a canal command area and
Ginyard and given to the people after
spending billions of billions of dollars
those are the projects that’s the
outcome it looks like a cesspool but
believe me this is drinking water
this is drinking water community
drinking water
this place is between Ravi and sewage
people living between two beautiful
rivers this is what they are getting for
drinking they are sticking those pipes
in those cesspool in order to get the
water and all these pictures are at at
different places in different villages
no two pictures are taken at the same
place look at this and look at that 21st
century extraction system of drinking
water further down now those were Punjab
notice that concrete down and since
further downstream because the further
downstream you go the worse it gets you
don’t even have concrete and dogs have
direct access to your drinking water
with all those kitchen utensils and
those people living in that community
those huts they are the ones this is
their drinking water these are the
people of Indus these are the people of
Sindh
they are the people who used to live by
those rivers with those pristine waters
and stuff you test those waters they are
completely unfit for drinking but the
children have no choice that’s the water
they drink and this is out of all those
billions of dollars of engineering this
is what you are giving to your people
remember that source where what’s the
source of this water and what your
engineering has turned into it this
picture that you see that structure in
the middle used to be a rice mill
in industrial ‘te today it has been
reclaimed by see only in low tide the
remnants of that mill are visible this
mill was 70 kilometers inland and today
that 70 kilometer of land in front of it
including the mill has been eroded to
the sea because the silt which was
coming into the rivers and replenishing
the Delta stops coming because of dams
and diversions and the sea starts
reclaiming it and once a thriving port
corrosion again on your industry Alta is
now a graveyard of decaying boats so
that is the damp and diverted rivers
those rivers in the world which have not
been dammed and diverted our people
actually earning money out of it
because all we did this was to make more
money out of the flowing rivers we
dammed them we diverted them we thought
we will earn money but the rivers which
are flowing they look like this this
river is Sava river it’s in Europe it’s
about five times smaller than Indus and
these are the flowing rivers and these
are the glowing peoples living by those
rivers depending on the water economy of
those rivers and this is what we have
the degraded rivers and dispossessed
people that’s the difference between
damn rivers and flowing rivers there are
four pillars of water economy storage
with a more diverse for storage but no
we have better aquifers we are better
storage in the form of aquifer we do it
for power both solar also let me go
solar solar is better irrigation we are
flooding our fields with flood
irrigation no there are systems in 21st
century with just touch your root zone
very little water and navigation is a
very very powerful tool that can help
you build peace in your rivers
here you go your aquifers here have 2900
billion cubic meters of storage capacity
all the dams you have built so far are
only 25 billion so you have 16 years of
storage available in your aquifers 16
years your dams can store only for 30
days this is what nature has given to
you
and floods are the natural mechanisms
which will reach our your aquifer so
don’t treat floods don’t treat floods as
occurs floods are a blessing these are
the irrigation systems which take less
than 15 times less water than your flood
irrigation systems and all these systems
are in Pakistan you can use them and
finally that inland navigation inland
navigation is about 15 to 20 times
cheaper than land Navy and rails and
here is your Indus River it stands in
the middle of your country and extends
its arms towards eastern and western
neighbors if you start navigating and
start providing inland ports to here in
Kabul and here in India this can serve
this whole region this whole land origin
and bring peace in all these countries
so 100 times more storage ten times
cheaper electricity 15 times less water
for irrigation and cheaper
transportation all these things are
coming from flowing rivers so your
take-home messages are sunshine is a
blessing because sunshine brings solar
floods are a blessing they reach our
aquifers climate change will increase
both so climate change
is a blessing – at least for the people
living in the Indus civilization and in
the civilization in the in the current
day of climate change can again come at
the forefront and lead the world so
please please please let the rivers flow [Applause]
the floods are considered a hazard in
national calamity and their control has
been desired in many societies of human
beings India in 1988 and Pakistan in
1992 suffered floods on Indian side by
us and subtle rivers were the ones which
were flooded on the Pakistani side
it was JLM river there are some
similarities in the two events and
that’s why I put these two years and
these two firsts together 1,500 lives
were lost in India and 1,000 in Pakistan
there were large dams on Sat Lodge and
biast bara and poem gam in India and
there was a very large dam on river
Jhelum on Enders on both sides of the
border when these dams were about to be
built people of the countries were told
that after these dams are built they
would be floods no more people believed
but then after the floods people turned
against Beebe MV which was baccarat a US
management board for their mismanagement
because people believe floods cannot
happen the dams are there and if still
the floods are there that means there’s
something wrong with the management same
was the case with Pakistan people blamed
water for the mismanagement in both
countries these two departments aren’t
bad repetition however there was one big
difference between the two countries
chairman BBMP was short dead two months
after the floods
nothing happened to chairman Bob de 1992
floods was a very eventful even
personally for me as a young engineer I
was doing some duties in the flood
control center of southern Punjab in
Bolton and I was wondering that via
despite having such a big dam there were
floods in the river and I was asking
this question from my seniors because I
didn’t have the answer to this question
and I never got a satisfactory answer a
big flood wave was moving in river
Jhelum approaching Volta and down in the
flood control center there was confusion
there was panic and there was ignorance
fast forward to 2018 it’s been a while
since then we just had water policy
announced a few weeks ago and this
Clause twenty point four twenty point
one point four it reads the safety of
dam embankments spillways abutments
foundations and all other hydraulic
structures will not be placed at risk
under any circumstances under any
conditions in other words what this
policy Clause says
let the people go to hell we will save
the structures first but your article 9
of Constitution says no person shall be
deprived of life or Liberty it’s
disclosed now not in conflict with the
with the constitutional provisions
should it not say that the safety of
persons come first and structures later
now
this practice of this policy Clause is
an old one this is what happened when
gates are found them and Bhakra dam were
open and people were drowned in India
this is what happened the same standing
procedure was followed in case of Mangla
and people who are drowned to save
structures and the same procedures were
followed in the floods of 2010 when
several breaches were made deliberate
breaches to save the structures those
those barrages and levees and people
were drowned but today this act of
criminality gets a legal cover in our
water policy this is quite unfortunate
you know water wars like any other war
water wars are a curse water war start
the moment you build a dam you start
thinking of for them and a war breaks
out the water wars are not fought with
conventional weapons
water wars are fought with dams
diversions and deceitful treaties this
is how Pakistan and India got into water
wars since their very beginning back in
December 1947 a standstill agreement was
signed between India and Pakistan and
that was a deceitful treaty then again
in May of 1948 and other agreement was
signed which was called Dominion accord
and that was again a deceitful treaties
these deceitful treaties were followed
by building of dam here and a dam there
a dam in Pakistan a dam in India a
diversion in Pakistan a diversion India
single act of damn diversion and treaty
was an act of war and these are the
weapons of water wars water wars are
fought with these weapons because the
moment you built a dam the communities
downstream the community upstream they
start arguing with each other we are
doing these wars since our beginning we
signed an interest Basin treaty again
admissible treaty and we are still not
happy with what happened after that that
that city or before that treaty and
people in India are never happy to and
what we got out of those treaties are
killing our own people now these dams
divergence you know once these wars
start they never end mistress animosity
it develops it deserves peace in the
region at all scales you know if you go
to the canal commanders of Pakistan the
farmers will be standing with guns and
other weapons in their hands when it is
time to water their fields because they
are fighting with their upstream
neighbor nobody takes my water nobody
wants to give up his water and they’re
armed there are there are killings if
you go to the record in police in
Pakistan you will find out so many
people have been killed in our rural
areas where these dams and diversions
are providing water then bigger national
calamities are magnified you know these
dams they protect you from small little
floods you become compression that
floods don’t happen and when a bigger
flood happens which is beyond the
capacity of the dam the calamity is
actually magnified if a dam was not
there there would have been less of a
damage that is why they say floods are
the acts of God flood damages are the
acts of man then silent
but incessant environmental degradation
and some sections of the society they
pay a very heavy price for this
environmental degradation generally as
an environmentalist when we talked to
the people there is a concept that oh
these are the tree hugging frog loving
people they are there for birds and bees
and they don’t care about progress well
we might care about birds and bees and
the fish and the frog but what about
these people they are the victims of
environmental degradation their houses
their living their properties are being
eaten away by water logging and salinity
which is a byproduct of your dams and
diversions agriculture fields once
thriving agriculture fields now
underwater logging destroyed by salinity
these hundreds of acres of land ask the
person who lost this land who owned it
and doesn’t own it anymore or can’t use
it anymore can’t sell it and then this
is what we are getting in the 21st
century somebody comes and tells us hey
dig a drain that will drain away your
salts that will drain away your water
logging and if you happen to stand by
this thing you know it’s very easy to
see it in the picture still not very
appreciative but if you are actually
standing right in front of that drain it
smells it stinks you can’t stand there
for a longer time if you are not used to
it
and it is a breeding ground for
mosquitoes and disease vectors it is a
nuisance in the landscape and where this
water is coming from which is calling
all this salinity and water logging and
those disgusting drains this water is
coming from here look what Nature has
given to you those glaciers are the best
source of water anywhere in the world
those Himalayan & korek are embellishes
and those streams which are emitting
emanating from those glaciers they are
the ones feeding your rivers your rivers
have got the best possible quality of
water
anywhere in the world because they are
gracious fed rivers and after doing a
lot of engineering this is what you give
to your people this is a drinking water
source in a canal command area and
Ginyard and given to the people after
spending billions of billions of dollars
those are the projects that’s the
outcome it looks like a cesspool but
believe me this is drinking water
this is drinking water community
drinking water
this place is between Ravi and sewage
people living between two beautiful
rivers this is what they are getting for
drinking they are sticking those pipes
in those cesspool in order to get the
water and all these pictures are at at
different places in different villages
no two pictures are taken at the same
place look at this and look at that 21st
century extraction system of drinking
water further down now those were Punjab
notice that concrete down and since
further downstream because the further
downstream you go the worse it gets you
don’t even have concrete and dogs have
direct access to your drinking water
with all those kitchen utensils and
those people living in that community
those huts they are the ones this is
their drinking water these are the
people of Indus these are the people of
Sindh
they are the people who used to live by
those rivers with those pristine waters
and stuff you test those waters they are
completely unfit for drinking but the
children have no choice that’s the water
they drink and this is out of all those
billions of dollars of engineering this
is what you are giving to your people
remember that source where what’s the
source of this water and what your
engineering has turned into it this
picture that you see that structure in
the middle used to be a rice mill
in industrial ‘te today it has been
reclaimed by see only in low tide the
remnants of that mill are visible this
mill was 70 kilometers inland and today
that 70 kilometer of land in front of it
including the mill has been eroded to
the sea because the silt which was
coming into the rivers and replenishing
the Delta stops coming because of dams
and diversions and the sea starts
reclaiming it and once a thriving port
corrosion again on your industry Alta is
now a graveyard of decaying boats so
that is the damp and diverted rivers
those rivers in the world which have not
been dammed and diverted our people
actually earning money out of it
because all we did this was to make more
money out of the flowing rivers we
dammed them we diverted them we thought
we will earn money but the rivers which
are flowing they look like this this
river is Sava river it’s in Europe it’s
about five times smaller than Indus and
these are the flowing rivers and these
are the glowing peoples living by those
rivers depending on the water economy of
those rivers and this is what we have
the degraded rivers and dispossessed
people that’s the difference between
damn rivers and flowing rivers there are
four pillars of water economy storage
with a more diverse for storage but no
we have better aquifers we are better
storage in the form of aquifer we do it
for power both solar also let me go
solar solar is better irrigation we are
flooding our fields with flood
irrigation no there are systems in 21st
century with just touch your root zone
very little water and navigation is a
very very powerful tool that can help
you build peace in your rivers
here you go your aquifers here have 2900
billion cubic meters of storage capacity
all the dams you have built so far are
only 25 billion so you have 16 years of
storage available in your aquifers 16
years your dams can store only for 30
days this is what nature has given to
you
and floods are the natural mechanisms
which will reach our your aquifer so
don’t treat floods don’t treat floods as
occurs floods are a blessing these are
the irrigation systems which take less
than 15 times less water than your flood
irrigation systems and all these systems
are in Pakistan you can use them and
finally that inland navigation inland
navigation is about 15 to 20 times
cheaper than land Navy and rails and
here is your Indus River it stands in
the middle of your country and extends
its arms towards eastern and western
neighbors if you start navigating and
start providing inland ports to here in
Kabul and here in India this can serve
this whole region this whole land origin
and bring peace in all these countries
so 100 times more storage ten times
cheaper electricity 15 times less water
for irrigation and cheaper
transportation all these things are
coming from flowing rivers so your
take-home messages are sunshine is a
blessing because sunshine brings solar
floods are a blessing they reach our
aquifers climate change will increase
both so climate change
is a blessing – at least for the people
living in the Indus civilization and in
the civilization in the in the current
day of climate change can again come at
the forefront and lead the world so
please please please let the rivers flow [Applause]
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