World Bank Appoints Experts to Implement Indus Water Treaty Properly

In line with its responsibilities under the Indus Water Treaty, the World Bank (WB) has made the appointments that it was mandated to make in the two separate processes requested by India and Pakistan in relation to the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric power plants. The appointments have been made after the two countries disagreed over whether the technical design features of these two hydroelectric plants contravened the Treaty. Pakistan asked the World Bank to facilitate the establishment of a Court of Arbitration to consider its concerns about the designs of the two hydroelectric power projects, while India asked for the appointment of a Neutral Expert to consider similar concerns over the two projects. Michel Lino has been appointed as the Neutral Expert and Professor Sean Murphy has been appointed as Chairman of the Court of Arbitration. They will carry out their duties in their individual capacity as subject matter experts and independently of any other appointments they may currently hold. The World Bank continues to share the concerns of the parties that carrying out the two processes concurrently poses practical and legal challenges. The lender is confident that the highly qualified experts appointed as Neutral Experts and as members of the Court of Arbitration will engage in fair and careful consideration of their jurisdictional mandate, as they are empowered to do by the Treaty.