Indus Valley Treaty

India has issued a notice to Pakistan seeking modification of the more than six-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) that governs the sharing of waters of six rivers in the Indus system between the two countries.

Key Points

• India said the notice follows Pakistan’s continued “intransigence” in implementing the treaty, by raising repeated objections to the construction of hydel projects on the Indian side.
• The notice, sent on January 25 through the Commissioner for Indus Waters, gives Pakistan 90 days to consider entering into intergovernmental negotiations to rectify the material breach of the treaty.
• The notice has invoked Article XII (3) of the treaty which says: The provisions of this Treaty may from time to time be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments.

The Issue

Dispute Redressal Mechanism

Indus Valley Treaty

• IWT is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank (WB), to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries. It is often cited as an example of the possibilities of peaceful coexistence despite the troubled relationship.
• It was signed in Karachi in 1960 by then-Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru and then-Pakistani president Ayub Khan.
• The Treaty gives control over the waters of the three “eastern rivers” – the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej (BRS)- to India, while control over the waters of the three “western rivers” – the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum -has been given to Pakistan.
• India has about 20% of the total water carried by the Indus system while Pakistan has 80%.
• The treaty allows India to use the western river waters for limited irrigation use and unlimited non-consumptive use for such applications as power generation.
• • India has the right to generate hydroelectricity through run-of-the-river (RoR) projects on the western rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation, is unrestricted.

A fortnight ago, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed the desire for a diplomatic handshake from across the border. The environment conducive to the thawing of relations between the two countries is far from appropriate and reconciling rhetoric with practice remains a challenge. As of now, both countries have opted for diplomatic hedging. This attitude has framed the water diplomacy between the two countries as well. By raking up the issue of hydroelectric projects, Pakistan has reiterated its desire for third-party mediation while India has reinforced its call for revisiting the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

In a recent notice to Islamabad via the Indus Commissioners, New Delhi claimed that the “intransigence” of Pakistan had made the communication channels over shared waters defunct. New Delhi has asserted that in light of this “material breach” of the agreement, it would like to “update the Treaty to incorporate the lessons learnt over the last 62 years”. It has given a 90-day notice to Islamabad — this has opened space, both legally and politically, for discussing, debating, interpreting and possibly also analysing the faultlines of water diplomacy of both countries.