In Kashmir, Pakistan and India race to tap the Himalayas

Pakistan

SEVERAL hundred metres underground, thousands of labourers grind away day and night on a mammoth hydroelectric project in contested Kashmir, where India and Pakistan are racing to tap the subcontinent's diminishing freshwater supplies.

The arch rivals have been building duelling power plants along the banks of the turquoise Neelum River for years. The two projects, located on opposite sides of the Line of Control - the de facto border in Kashmir - are now close to completion, fuelling tensions between the neighbours with Pakistan particularly worried their downstream project will be deprived of much-needed water by India.