Indus Waters Treaty Research Articles

Blood is Thicker than Water: A Genealogy of Water in Nation-State Building

This work explores the multifaceted relationship between India and Pakistan, starting with India’s very recent decision to renegotiate the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 between the two countries. This treaty, considered to be a time-tested hallmark of peace on the Indian subcontinent, is particularly heralded by mediators like the World Bank. This desire for peace is confronted with the reality of border skirmishes and conflicts over Kashmir, a state through which the Indus River flows. Accordingly, I interrogate the interactions between various political actors over the Indus Waters themselves, specifically focusing on partition and the subsequent period that led up to the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty. This piece seeks to understand the role of nature in cohering international, national and subnational identity. Specifically, I focus on the two countries’ historical conflicts over water as well as sovereign claims to water in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, which are regions that must balance domestic priorities with the looming national interests of India and Pakistan. By linking water to the economic, cultural, and social language that comprises political imagination and identity, I hope to reveal new insights about how the relationship between nature and humanity has transformed from mutual cooperation to one of commodification and displacement.

Melting Glaciers and the Indus Water Treaty: A Looming Crisis

The Indus Waters Treaty was created in 1960 to allocate water between India and Pakistan. Climate change was not considered then, but hydrology and conflict resolution have progressed. Climate change has altered water availability, including volume, timing, frequency, and quality. Population growth, urbanization, and climatic events have impacted Pakistan’s water supply. This tension could escalate into conflict without addressing the treaty’s knowledge and practice gaps. Advancements in transboundary watercourse management, environmental monitoring, and data acquisition are necessary. Water remains a source of tension, and prompt action is needed to ensure sustainable water resource management. One possible solution to this issue is to integrate modern knowledge on climate change into the IWT and harmonize it with the current set of international water laws and regulations. Hence, it is imperative to formulate a framework enabling both countries to reach a consensus and introduce climate change-related clauses and provisions into the IWT.

Revisiting the IWT for technical gaps and climate change vulnerability: a policy perspective from Pakistan

The history of India-Pakistan relations has been brimming with squabbles and conflicts since their separation in 1947. Except for the significant and lasting Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 for sharing river waters, little-to-none economic cooperation has taken place between the two riparian states. This paper analyses some noticeable gaps that have rendered this treaty obsolete such as the escalating influence of climatic changes on water resources of the region and some other shortcomings, namely the possible limits of shared water usage, unrestricted use of shared waters for power generation, rerouting of water, and the lack of synergistic projects. Moreover, due to the exponential increase in water and energy demand along with the aggravating depletion of water tables in Pakistan, the treaty is failing to secure the combined water resources of the Indus river basin. This study presents the policy perspective to guide future endeavours, ensuring the treaty’s survival as it needs the necessary adjustments to enhance the socio-economic cooperation between India and Pakistan, put in place the collective efforts for mitigation of risks posed by climate-induced disasters, and improve the management of water resources for collaborative development.

Retrospecting the Indus Mediation through Waltz's levels of analysis

Abstract This article presents a retrospection of India–Pakistan Indus Mediation (1951–1960) that culminated in the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) from the perspective of Waltz's levels of analysis. It argues that apart from the factors at the individual and domestic levels of India and Pakistan, it was the US–USSR Cold War rivalry coupled with the India–Pakistan security dilemma at the international level that goaded the Mediation to succeed. The US sought to resolve the India–Pakistan water dispute as a first step to resolve the Kashmir dispute before the USSR could intervene in the region in the pretext of the Kashmir dispute. The India–Pakistan security dilemma compelled India and Pakistan to accept the offices of the World Bank and sign the IWT in 1960.

Pakistan’s Lower Riparian Anxieties on the Indus and Indian Assurances

This paper analyses Pakistan’s lower riparian anxieties on the Indus and Indian assurances by elaborating the differing perspectives of the two states on different projects pursued by India on the western rivers; the rivers allotted to Pakistan by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. It argues that the water supply has reduced drastically in the last fifty years, which has resulted in a water crisis in India and Pakistan. India has started constructing different hydroelectric projects on western rivers in Jammu and Kashmir, which the treaty allows under certain conditionality. Pakistan objects to these projects as against the treaty. Pakistan considers the Indian projects a threat to its national integrity and the agriculture-based economy, as they could be used as a weapon to the detriment of downstream Pakistan. India assures Pakistan of no such intentions and defends the projects as in conformity with the Indus Water Treaty. This trust deficit between the two arch-rivals has made water disputes between them intractable.

(2021) Volume 2, Issue 4 Cultural Implications of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC Authors: Dr. Unsa Jamshed Amar Jahangir Anbrin Khawaja Abstract: This study is an attempt to highlight the cultural implication of CPEC on Pak-China relations, how it will align two nations culturally, and what steps were taken by the governments of two states to bring the people closer.

(2021) Volume 2, Issue 4 Cultural Implications of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC Authors: Dr. Unsa Jamshed Amar Jahangir Anbrin Khawaja Abstract: This study is an attempt to highlight the cultural implication of CPEC on Pak-China relations, how it will align two nations culturally, and what steps were taken by the governments of two states to bring the people closer.

Indus Water Treaty: Challenges and Prospects

The growing water scarcity in India and Pakistan and emerging climatic and environmental changes to the Indus basin rivers system are causing a great stress on smoothing working of Indus water treaty 1960. Pakistan Being a lower riparian, facing the issue as to how to reinterpret the Indus Waters Treaty without giving up its water rights. The paper discusses that following the inbuilt constraints of a lower riparian, Pakistan need to adopt a multi-pronged strategy following water rationale to secure its water rights within the scope of the treaty. For this; effective implementation and enhancement of Article VI, VII, constructive diplomatic and political strategy,efficient water uses and sustainable water resource management in Indus-Pakistan.

The Indus and Mekong River Basins: Cooperation and Disputes

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and the Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin are two of the most important transboundary water treaties signed between member states that have a history of disputes and wars. In the case of India and Pakistan, voices to scrap the IWT in both countries are made chiefly because of their day-to-day bitter relationships. The treaty nevertheless remains in effect. The Mekong River Basin countries have had sour relationships in the past, and even after the agreement was signed in 1995 some political differences and disputes between them have remained. In both the Indus and Mekong basins, China is an important upper riparian. This article discusses the IWT and Agreement among the Mekong basin countries and examines the convergences and divergences between the two. It then analyses the role of China, as an upper basin to Indus and Mekong.

Pakistan’s Indus Diplomacy: From Troubled Waters to a Troubled Treaty

Abstract This article analyzes six major crises in Pakistan’s Indus diplomacy which shaped Pakistan’s water (in)security vis-à-vis upstream rival India on the Indus river system. These include first, when Pakistan failed to comply with the Standstill Agreement of 1947; second, when it signed the Inter-Dominion Agreement; third, when it acquiesced to the Nehru-Lilienthal-favored functional approach to the Indus water dispute in 1951; fourth, when the World Bank Proposal of 1954 apportioned exclusive use of the Western Rivers to Pakistan and the Eastern Rivers to India, but Pakistan delayed accepting the Proposal; fifth, when India secured rights on the Western Rivers in the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960; and sixth, several challenges that have emerged under the Indus Waters Treaty.

Indus Water Treaty: Past Present and Future

Natural resources are fundamental and imperative for the existence and evolution of human civilizations. Water being most important scarce natural resource has become a contentious political issue in the world. South Asia being a less connected and conflict ridden region, Water related conflicts have been a dominant area of concern. At the time of independence, the boundary line between the two newly created independent countries, i.e. Pakistan and India was drawn right across the Indus Basin, leaving Pakistan as the lower riparian. Dispute thus arose between the two countries regarding the utilization of irrigation waters from existing facilities. The negotiations held under the World Bank, culminated in the signing of Indus Waters Treaty in 1960. The paper will examine the historical background of the treaty; the contentious developments which have arose over the years and will also discuss the Kashmir perspective on the treaty. The paper will also evaluate the present disagreeing arguments of both states over the treaty.

Contribution of General Principles of International Law in Progressive Development of Transboundary Aquifers

Man’s ruthless exploitation of natural resources means that we are housed in a resource-deprived world. The tug of war for meager resources has led to many conflicts between States that we witness today. At the heart of the whole debate on resource crunch is the issue of shared natural resources between States. International law has formulated several legal instruments to govern the shared transboundary resources, laws on transboundary aquifers being one. The objective of this paper is to unlock the general principles of international law that regulate the transboundary aquifers. In this regard, the paper has been apportioned into three sections. The first section sets the tone by detailing the provisions of the 2008 Draft Articles on the Transboundary Aquifers dealing with general principles. The second segment of the paper lays down the cardinal principles regulating transboundary aquifers, which range from sustainable development to the principle of good faith. The final portion delves into the Israel-Palestine dispute and the India-Pakistan Indus Waters Treaty in the context of transboundary aquifers.

Sixty Years of the Indus Waters Treaty in the Era of Climate Change: A Look Ahead in Hydro-diplomacy and Treaty Law

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has now attained the milestone of 60 years (1960– 2020). It was registered by India with the United Nations on 16 January 1962. It has become a global role model of an international legal mechanism for shared transboundary water resources. It has withstood all the strains, conflicts and lows in the bilateral relations between the riparian states of India and Pakistan. The current trends of global climate change in the Anthropocene epoch have exacerbated the risk of conflict over the shared international freshwater resources under the IWT. The receding glaciers, scanty snowfall, changing land system patterns, increasing demands for water to meet irrigation, industrial and domestic water demands, all have cumulatively made an impact on water availability in the Indus Basin. As the climatic changes induce decline in water flows in the Indus Basin rivers, this study seeks to analyze the actual working of the IWT, efficacy of the in-built conflict resolution mechanism and the sheer tenacity to stay course especially on the part of the large upper riparian country, India. It, in turn, has become an exemplar in a treaty-based mechanism as well as in making hydro-diplomacy work for governance of the transboundary water resources in the era of climate change.

The Hydropolitics of the Indus Waters Treaty: A Critical Perspective

This paper discusses the hydro politics of the Indus Waters Treaty from a critical perspective. Many analysts and commentators from both India and Pakistan expressed displeasure with the treaty on the grounds of allotting more waters to the contending party. The Indian side is displeased with 'restricted' rights on western rights, whereas the Pakistani side laments the Indian rights on the western rivers as detrimental to its water security. Neutral experts consider the Indus Waters Treaty as an instance of successful water dispute resolution. However, the treaty's failure to account for future implications of the climate change for water supply and surging population for water demand as well as the absence of the other co-riparians of China and Afghanistan from the treaty and its failure to hardwire enough safeguards to ensure Kashmiri's needs are met from the waters add to the stresses and strains in the Indus Waters Treaty.

Climate Change and Armed Conflict: Pakistan’s Vulnerability in the Coming Water Wars

Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to climate change and the third most water stressed. By 2025, it is anticipated that water demand will outstrip supply by 35 percent. It is also in an extremely vulnerable position in relation to this resource as a lower riparian State to India. The rise of Hindutva nationalism in its hydrological neighbour does not bode well. India has, since electing the BJP into power, repeatedly threatened to cut off all water to Pakistan and give it to Jammu and Kashmir instead. In so doing, it is weaponising Pakistan’s water needs and driving a wedge between the country and Kashmiris. After the Uri attack in 2016, Indian Prime Minister Modi said that “Blood and Water cannot flow simultaneously.” The only legal instrument regulating water-relations between India and Pakistan, however, remains the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. While the two countries have resolved issues under the agreement through hydrodiplomacy and the treaty’s dispute resolution process in the past, there are well-founded fears that India may go beyond rhetoric and resort to unilateral acts violating the water-sharing pact. The risk of India undertaking this sort of hydrohegemony for Pakistan is acute and a source of existential anxiety. Pakistan only has enough water storage to last 30 days if India were to shut off its water. Meanwhile, it has countered Indian rhetoric by stating that it will consider any diversion of water to be an act of war. This paper will explore and assess all of these issues. It will start with a discussion of the effects of climate change, focusing on its impact on freshwater systems and Pakistan specifically. It will then consider the link between climate change and armed conflict, particularly ‘water wars’, concluding that it acts as a threat multiplier making conflict more likely. The article goes on to analyse international legal frameworks and key principles applicable on States that may counter the effects of climate-change fueled conflicts. Part Five of this paper then looks at Pakistan-India water relations as a case study. It begins with a historical perspective with regards to the adoption of the Indus Waters Treaty, key aspects of the treaty, the dispute resolution process, and its weaknesses. The international legal framework is then applied to Pakistan and India’s water relations and possible recourse for Pakistan in the event that India does take unilateral steps in breach of the treaty are analysed. The paper concludes by advocating that Pakistan adopt a forward-looking approach in responding to any possible actions by India. It does this in the hope that we can avoid a water-aggravated war; the lives of the 300 million people in both countries relying on the Indus for sustenance depend on it.

Lilienthal’s ‘Another “Korea” in the making?’ From the Cold War to the Indus Waters Treaty

AbstractThis article discusses David Lilienthal's article ‘Another “Korea” in the Making?’ It argues that the primary purpose behind Lilienthal's article was the containment of Soviet influence in the region of South Asia. The stated article not only initiated but deeply influenced the World Bank led Indus mediations (1951–1960) to succeed in the shape of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). This article, thus, suggests that the IWT is a product of the Cold War competition between the US and USSR. More importantly, ‘Another “Korea” in the Making?’ shaped the features of the IWT greatly. This article also suggests that Lilienthal was the founding architect of the IWT.

Blood, Water, and the Indus Waters Treaty

The contested and divided province of Jammu and Kashmir, situated on the western side of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountains is one of the most dangerous and heavily militarized places on earth. It is a Muslim-majority borderland harboring contested territorial claims of three nuclear powers—India, Pakistan, and China. Through it flow the headwaters of the six major tributaries that form the massive Indus Basin, the essential fresh water source for Pakistan and for upwards of 300 million Indians and Pakistanis. Since 1960, the unusual Indus Waters Treaty has governed the use of these waters. The treaty forwards a water-division rather than a water-sharing arrangement. Pakistan is assigned the three major western tributaries (the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab Rivers), and India is assigned the three eastern tributaries (the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej Rivers). Multiple changes in circumstance, principally due to population growth and climate change tax the operation of the treaty, which has been praised as one of the world’s most successful transboundary water treaties and perhaps the best example of decades-long cooperation between these two bitter enemies. Recent events, linking Pakistan-based terrorist attacks, Hindu nationalism, and constitutional changes to the status of Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, resulted in India’s announcement of its intention to capture all unutilized water flowing into Pakistan from its eastern tributaries. This hard legalization of the terms of the treaty threatens to take the Indus Waters Treaty to its breaking point while evincing existential anxieties in Pakistan over tightening water supply that already make it the third most water stressed country in the world. This article reviews the combustible interface of international riparian law and international customary law with the geopolitics of one of the most dangerous corners of the world, suggesting that the business as usual approach for the Indus Waters Treaty no longer provides a meaningful solution. Backed into a corner from which no ready pathway for revision prevails, this article argues that the parties can only at best undertake much needed domestic breathing space for the Indus Waters Treaty, until that time when an environment for meaningful hydro-diplomacy can take hold.

Challenges to Indus Waters Treaty and Options for Pakistan

The Indus water treaty was signed on 19th September 1960 by India and Pakistan under the aegis of the World Bank. Bilateral principles regarding water apportionment between both states were ensured by the Treaty. As a result, waters of the eastern rivers; Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, were assigned exclusively to India, while Pakistan received exclusive water rights of the western rivers; the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab but India is allowed to irrigate some specific land in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to generate hydroelectric power through run-off-the river projects. Following the Uri incident, the Indian government and media are generating ideas to discard the Indus water treaty. This paper focuses on legal and international implications if India attempts to unilaterally revoke the Treaty.

Indo- Pak Relation and Indus Water

Water has changed into a rigidly basic settling in the change strategy everything being equal. Not exclusively is anchored drinking water key for our flourishing, anyway water is in like way a crucial essential for encourage agrarian, ebb and flow and importance related redesigns. Normal for the Indus Water Treaty mean the entire of a basic and long-standing examination among India and Pakistan over water common contention, opens the course to the quiet utilize and progress of water assets on which depends the control of some place in the extent of 50 million individuals in the two nations. This paper looks into the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the lawmaking assortments of India and Pakistan in setting of the new normal and social substances going up against water assets. In any case, one can't disregard the difficulties of future supplies of crisp water between the two nations.

Adjudicating infrastructure: Treaties, territories, hydropolitics

In 2013, an international Court of Arbitration delivered a two-part decision on the legality of the Kishenganga Hydro-Electric Plant, located in the internationally disputed territory of Kashmir. The court was convened under procedures detailed in the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, a landmark international water treaty between Pakistan and India mediated by the World Bank in the 1950s. The Kishenganga case is part of the ongoing hydropolitical competition between Pakistan and India over the use of Indus waters and the development of new infrastructures on the river system. This paper draws on critical water geography and geopolitical theory to guide a close, critical, and contextual reading of competing interpretations of the purpose and objective of the Indus Waters Treaty made during the Kishenganga case. It argues that two specific geopolitical imperatives powerfully shaped the legal strategies of state elites: downstream territorialism and basin developmentalism. Pakistani lawyers drew on the treaty negotiation archives to argue that its primary objective and purpose was the protection of vulnerable downstream territories. Indian lawyers, however, drew on the text of the treaty and the archives to argue the primary objective was the maximum economic development of the Indus Basin. I also discuss the relationship of these imperatives with David Harvey’s influential understanding of capitalist states acting under the dual pressures of the “territorial” and “capitalist” imperatives. By analyzing how geopolitical imperatives shape strategies of treaty interpretation, the paper develops a legal and geopolitical contribution to critical water geography. The paper also makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating how treaty negotiation archives represent a rich and underutilized resource for hydropolitical analysis.

Assessing the Indus Waters Treaty from a comparative perspective

ABSTRACTThe 1960 Indus Waters Treaty dividing the rivers of the Indus system between India and Pakistan has continued to function through two wars and numerous political tensions. Nevertheless, given mounting pressures on the Indus’ waters due to population growth, climate change and mismanagement, many call for abandonment or renegotiation of the treaty. This article situates these criticisms within the quantitative literature analyzing river treaties to demonstrate that the same critiques are applicable to many treaties. Comparative analysis also reveals that while some of the treaty’s weaknesses can be addressed, important structural obstacles render certain of its deficiencies difficult to correct.