ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan (GoP) is trying to engage the Afghan government in dialogue for a possible water treaty and to develop some mechanism for information sharing between the two countries.

In a written response to a question asked by Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini in Senate, the government issued a statement that sharing of information between the two countries will include knowledge about the future impact on water flow from Afghanistan but so far the government of Afghanistan has proven to be non-responsive.

The Afghan government has reconstructed hydropower projects destroyed that had been destroyed during the war; including Kama and other hydroelectric plants, therefore, there is no impact on the inflows in common rivers with Afghanistan as of yet.

However, there are certain new projects in the pipeline as per information gathered from different sources. There will be certainly some impact on water inflows in the common rivers after the completion of the new projects.

An Afghanistan Cell has been established in the office of Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Water (PCIW) which will collect data from different sources and is monitoring inflows in shared rivers with Afghanistan.