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Indus Water Treaty: India’s Notice to Pakistan

The Indus Water Treaty was signed between the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan in 1960. World Bank negotiated the treaty.

According to the treaty, the waters of Beas, Ravi, and Sutlej are controlled by India, and the waters of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab are controlled by Pakistan.

All these rivers form the Indus Water system. India has 20% access to the water system and Pakistan has 80% access. According to India, Pakistan has been “INTRANSIGENCE” over the treaty. That signifies the treaty is more profitable to Pakistan instead of dividing the water equally between two of the nations.

For this reason, India has sent a notice to Pakistan to modify the treaty.

Backdrop of the Indus Water Treaty

The Indus Basin, rising from southwestern Tibet and winding through Kashmir before entering into the Punjab and emptying into the Arabian Sea, is one of the world’s most homogenous physiographic regions. The treaty partitioned the basin by allotting the unrestricted use of the three eastern rivers – the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej – to India, and the three Western rivers – the Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum – to Pakistan. A little over half of the basin’s total irrigated area lies within Pakistan, which supplies 90 per cent of its agricultural production. Pakistan, whose West Punjab province was extensively irrigated by the British, leveraged its historical claims to secure roughly 80 per cent of the Indus waters’ distribution. Around 20 per cent was reserved for India. However, India also gained limited rights of ‘non-consumptive’ use on the Western rivers, such as in irrigation, water storage and hydropower.

While seemingly skewed on the surface, India secured other strategic advantages. India is located upstream to Pakistan on all six rivers. Pakistan’s lower geographical position – not only to the Indus Rivers in India, but also to the Kabul River in Afghanistan – makes it reliant on both neighbours for its waters. Pakistan is especially vulnerable to changes in water supply, and is likely to become South Asia’s most water-stressed nation in the next two decades.6 Beyond irrigation and basic sustenance, the treaty thus also carries national security implications: Pakistan fears India will use its upper-riparian geography to manipulate the flow of waters through diversion or built-up storage in dams, flooding Pakistan during the rainy season or cutting water during the dry season. This is why Pakistan watches Indian hydropower designs closely.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is a nearly 60-year-old water-distribution treaty that delimits the rights and obligations of India and Pakistan for the use of waters on the Indus Rivers Then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistani President Ayub Khan signed the treaty in 1960, with the World Bank acting as its third-party guarantor.

The World Bank’s role is to appoint a neutral expert in case of ‘technical’ differences, failing which the differences are escalated to a dispute for international arbitration.

Over its half century of existence, the IWT has been hailed as an example of successful third-party mediation and conflict prevention. The sharing of the Indus waters has continued unabated, despite four wars between India and Pakistan, and has lately received additional attention as the issue of water scarcity in both nations intensifies.

India’s Call for negotiations

India announced on 25 Jan 2023 that it wants to modify the 62-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, citing what it called Pakistan’s “intransigence” in resolving disputes over the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects, both in Jammu and Kashmir. India also protested Pakistan’s “unilateral” decision to approach a court of arbitration at The Hague.

Sources said that the government had written to Pakistan on Wednesday, January 25, calling for modifications to the treaty as per Article XII (3) of the IWT that deals with the “final provisions” of the treaty. The first hearing of the Pakistani case at the Permanent Court of Arbitrage at The Hague in the Netherlands began on Friday, with India boycotting the court process.

India announced on 25 Jan 2023 that it wants to modify the 62-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, citing what it called Pakistan’s “intransigence” in resolving disputes over the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects, both in Jammu and Kashmir. India also protested Pakistan’s “unilateral” decision to approach a court of arbitration at The Hague.

India announced on 25 Jan 2023 that it wants to modify the 62-year-old Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, citing what it called Pakistan’s “intransigence” in resolving disputes over the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects, both in Jammu and Kashmir. India also protested Pakistan’s “unilateral” decision to approach a court of arbitration at The Hague.