How India Is Finally Correcting a Historic Water Injustice After Putting the Indus Waters Treaty on Hold

For more than six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty stood as one of the most unequal international agreements signed by independent India. Under the 1960 pact, brokered by the World Bank, India handed over nearly 80 percent of the Indus river system to Pakistan, despite these rivers originating in Indian territory. While India retained the eastern rivers, the strategically critical western rivers—Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab—were effectively placed under Pakistan’s control, with India reduced to a tightly monitored upstream user.

Even limited development on these rivers required India to seek Pakistan’s approval, submit technical designs, and face prolonged objections. Pakistan repeatedly used this framework not for cooperation, but as a diplomatic weapon to stall Indian infrastructure, delay development in Jammu and Kashmir, and internationalise bilateral issues.

India reviews Chenab hydropower projects amid IWT abeyance: Why Pakistan cries foul over power push | Moneycontrol

Why the Modi Government Put the Treaty in Abeyance

India’s decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance came after years of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and repeated misuse of treaty mechanisms. While India honoured the agreement even during wars, Pakistan responded with continued hostility, cross-border attacks, and obstructionist tactics at international forums.

By suspending the treaty, the Modi government made it clear that water cooperation cannot exist in isolation from national security. The move does not amount to immediate river stoppage, as propaganda suggests, but it removes artificial constraints that prevented India from fully utilising its rightful resources.

Hydropower Projects Unshackled from Pakistan’s Veto

One of the biggest outcomes of the treaty pause has been the acceleration of stalled hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir. For years, projects like Ratle, Pakal Dul, Kiru, and Kwar were held hostage by Pakistan’s objections, despite being run-of-the-river projects permitted under the treaty itself.

With the treaty no longer operational, these projects are now progressing without foreign interference. The Ratle Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab, earlier dragged into arbitration by Pakistan, is finally moving forward at full pace. Once operational, it will significantly enhance India’s renewable energy capacity and strengthen power availability in the region.

This is not about “blocking water” to Pakistan, but about ending a system where India needed permission to build dams on its own rivers.

Stopping the Free Flow of India’s Water into Pakistan

For decades, vast quantities of water flowed from India into Pakistan without being used domestically, even in water-stressed regions. Infrastructure gaps, combined with treaty restrictions, ensured that India could not store or divert water effectively.

The completion of the Shahpurkandi Barrage has changed this reality. Water that earlier flowed unchecked into Pakistan is now being utilised for irrigation in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab. This directly benefits Indian farmers and strengthens food security, something previous governments failed to prioritise.

India is also studying long-term water management projects, including inter-basin transfers from the Indus system to the Ravi-Beas-Sutlej basin. These initiatives reflect a shift from appeasement-driven policy to pragmatic resource management.

Pakistan’s Panic and Manufactured Alarmism

Predictably, Pakistan has reacted with alarmist rhetoric, claiming that India’s actions violate international law and threaten regional stability. Such claims ignore a fundamental fact: there is no guaranteed volume of water flow mentioned in the Indus Waters Treaty, only usage rights.

Pakistan’s fear stems not from water scarcity overnight, but from the loss of leverage it enjoyed for decades. The treaty allowed Islamabad to challenge Indian projects while doing little to modernise its own inefficient irrigation system, which wastes massive quantities of water annually.

Instead of reforming domestic water management, Pakistan chose to internationalise the issue, an approach that has consistently failed.

A Long-Overdue Assertion of Sovereignty

India’s recalibration of its Indus policy is not aggressive; it is corrective. It signals that national interest, development, and security will no longer be sacrificed at the altar of outdated agreements signed under foreign pressure.

Hydropower development in border regions strengthens infrastructure, creates employment, stabilises local economies, and integrates Jammu and Kashmir more firmly into India’s growth story. It also denies Pakistan the ability to use water as a diplomatic pressure point.

The MGMM Outlook

India’s decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance marks a long-overdue correction of a deeply imbalanced arrangement that constrained national development for over six decades. The treaty, signed under external mediation, allowed Pakistan disproportionate control over rivers originating in Indian territory while subjecting India’s legitimate hydropower and water infrastructure projects to constant scrutiny, objections, and delays. Successive governments adhered to the agreement even during periods of open hostility, but Pakistan repeatedly weaponised treaty mechanisms to stall projects in Jammu and Kashmir and internationalise bilateral disputes. By pausing the treaty, India has removed artificial barriers that prevented optimal use of its own water resources, clearly signalling that cooperation cannot be detached from national security realities.

The immediate impact is visible in the acceleration of hydropower projects such as Ratle, Pakal Dul, Kiru, and Kwar, which were earlier held hostage by external interference despite being legally permissible. Alongside energy security, India is now ensuring that water which previously flowed unused into Pakistan is harnessed for irrigation and domestic needs through projects like the Shahpurkandi Barrage, directly benefiting farmers and water-stressed regions. Pakistan’s alarmist response reflects not an imminent water crisis, but the loss of a long-held leverage point. This shift represents a sovereign recalibration prioritising development, resource efficiency, and strategic stability, ensuring that India’s rivers finally serve India’s people and long-term interests.

(Sources: OpIndia, Moneycontrol, Firstpost)