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<br />32
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<br />THE AMERIOAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATfONAL LAW
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<br />[Vol. 53
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<br />(.I.)
<br />.t;.)
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<br />consequences to a nation may be no less fatal, as noted by David E.
<br />Lilienthal after visiting an area in Pakistan from which India had
<br />temporarily withheld irrigation supplies.7 There is such interdependence
<br />between the riparians of an international river system that action by one
<br />within its own borders is likely to affect the others beneficially or ad-
<br />versely. It is therefore next to impossible for one state to adopt a view
<br />of its rights and interests and act on them without passing and executing
<br />judgment on the corresponding rights and interests of its co-riparians.
<br />It has been observed that co-riparians are like partners." This inter-
<br />dependence of riparians is such as to create special rights and duties.
<br />Adjudication accordingly has a special role in international river disputes.
<br />
<br />* * .
<br />
<br />Most disputes over the distribution amongst co-riparian states of the
<br />benefits to be derived from an international river involve disagreements
<br />over questions of fact. 'Even where the primary facts are known and
<br />agreed upon, differences are likely to arise as to the engineering and eco-
<br />nomic conclusions to be drawn from the basic data. Such differences are
<br />to be expected. Where a change is proposed and there is no disagreement
<br />as to the applicable principles of law, and consultation fails to resolve
<br />the differences, experience has demonstrated the desirability of proceeding
<br />with mediation or conciliation through a good officer assisted by a staff of
<br />objective technical experts.
<br />Even in disputes involving disagreement over the governing principles
<br />of law, or their application, the parties are likely to benefit most if the
<br />final solution is worked out by procedures leading to agreement. "The
<br />most satisfactory settlement of disputes of this kind," one commission
<br />concluded, "is by agreement, the' parties adopting the same technical
<br />solution of each problem, as if they were a single community undivided
<br />
<br />'( ,t Pakistan includes some of the most product~1'"e food~growing lands in the world
<br />in Western Punjab (the Kipling country) and the Sind. But without wat.,. for Irrigation
<br />this would be desert, 20,000,000 acres would dry up in a week, tens of millions would
<br />starve. No army, with bombs and shellfire, could devastate a land as thoroughly as
<br />Pakistan could be devastated by the simple expedient of India's permanently shutting
<br />off the sources of water that keep the fields and' the people of Pakistan alive. India
<br />has never threatened such a drastic step, and indeed denies any such intention-but
<br />the power ia there ;nonetheless." (Lilienthal, "Another Korea in the Making"-' Collier's,
<br />Aug. 4, 1951, p. 58, col. 1.) India has since threatened to cut off Pakistan'a supplies
<br />in 1962. Speech of Shri S. K. Patil, Minister for Irrigation and Power, in the Lok
<br />Sabha on March 26, 1958. See press release of Information Service of India, Embassy
<br />of India, Washington, D,C" M.R. 27/58, June 13, 1958, for comments on Mr, Patil's
<br />statements. There are, however, signs of better second thoughts. According to the
<br />July 15, 1958, issue of India. News, a periOdical of the Embassy of India. in the United
<br />States, Mr. Pati! hae in a later speech (Jnne 30, 1958) indicated that "India will do
<br />nothing to affect prejudicially riparian rights of Pakistan."
<br />8 "International law recognizes the right on the part of every riparian state to enjoy
<br />as a participant of a kind of partnership created by the river, all the advantages de.
<br />riving from it for the purpose of securing the welfare and the economic and civil
<br />progress of the nation . . ." Soei~te Energie Electrique du Littoral Mediterran~en 11.
<br />Compagnia Imprese Elettriche Liguri (Decision bf Italian Court of Cassation, Feb. I?,
<br />1939). Aunual Digest of Public International Law Cases (Lauterpacht) 121, 122,
<br />No. 47 (1938-40).
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