Haryana-Punjab water row: 'Empty Bhakra Dam before June, else excess water will flow to Pakistan'

Haryana has urged its neighbouring Punjab to provide drinking water to them, or the excess Bhakra reservoir water will flow to Pakistan. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini made the statement at a time when India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack.

Nayab stressed the need to empty the Bhakra reservoir, one of the largest dams under the now-suspended treaty, before monsoon. "It is necessary to empty the Bhakra Dam water reservoir before June so that rainwater can be stored during the monsoon. If there is no space left in the water reservoir, excess water will go to Pakistan via Hari-ke-Pattan, which is neither in the interest of Punjab nor the nation," he said.
Saini cautioned that Delhi's drinking water supply could also be affected. “When the Aam Aadmi Party governed Delhi, the Mann government in Punjab had no objection to water being supplied to the capital. Now that AAP is no longer in power there, why is Mann making such remarks that effectively penalise the people of Delhi?” he asked.
The Punjab Government claims that Haryana has already utilised its allocated share of water for September 21, 2024 to May 20, 2025 depletion period. The state claims it has no water to spare as two of the three key dams, Pong and Ranjit Sagar, have very little water, much below the average water level, because of the climate change (deficient monsoon last year and very little snowfall in upper reaches of Himachal) impacting water inflow into the dams.
Responding to Punjab’s claim that Haryana had exhausted its allocated water share in March, Saini countered that Haryana has, in fact, not received its full entitlement. He explained that of the water released to Haryana by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) last month, 500 cusecs went to Delhi for drinking water, 800 cusecs to Rajasthan, and 400 cusecs to Punjab. “Therefore, the actual amount Haryana received was only 6,800 cusecs,” he stated.
"If the BBMB were to provide the remaining water as per Haryana's demand, it would amount to just 0.0001 per cent of the water stored in the Bhakra Dam, a figure so small it would have no impact on its storage," Saini added.
On the other hand, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accused the BJP of exerting pressure on the Punjab government through the BBMB to meet Haryana's demand.
Mann claimed that the Haryana government has urged the Centre to divert waters from the Chenab, Jhelum, Ujh, and other rivers to northern states to meet growing demand during the onset of the paddy season. Saini said his counterpart "seems to have forgotten that in April-May, paddy cultivation is not carried out in Punjab and Haryana. In these two months, the water released by the BBMB is solely for drinking purposes."
Meanwhile, the long-running dispute between Punjab and Haryana over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal remains unresolved. The 214-km canal project, designed to share Ravi-Beas waters between the two states, has only been completed in Haryana’s territory. Punjab, which began construction in 1982, later abandoned it. Earlier this year, Punjab CM declared that the SYL canal would "never be built" and asserted that Punjab lacks surplus water to share. In response, Saini reiterated the canal’s importance and accused the Punjab government of stalling progress on the matter.