New Delhi: Diplomatic skills of officials from Ministry of Water Resources were put to use this year as they dealt with Nepal, China and Pakistan on issues of river water sharing and floods.

The officials were kept on their toes -- be its talks with China on crucial flood data sharing, with Nepal on the devastating floods in river Kosi or negotiations with Pakistan on the Chenab river.

Experts from various departments of the ministry used their skills to deal with their counterparts in Nepal and Pakistan under the 1964 Kosi River Treaty.

They also countered Islamabad's claims that New Delhi choked the flow of Chenab river to fill up the Baglihar Dam in Jammu and Kashmir in violation of the 1960 Indus Treaty.

Though India has no water treaty with China, it has a five-year renewable agreement with Beijing on flood data forecasting. The agreement was renewed this year with certain changes.

The most important achievement of the ministry this year was perhaps the decision reached between New Delhi and Kathmandu to establish a number of mechanisms, including a ministerial-level Joint River Committee, to avert calamities like the Kosi floods which left several thousands dead in Bihar and Nepal.
Source : PTI