That India’s suspension at the beginning of the summer of the Indus Basin Waters Treaty was meant to weaponize the river waters became clear when it used the stored waters of the Baglihar and Salal Dams to send water into the Chenab and thus flood thousands of miles of farmland in the Punjab and Sindh were flooded. This was not the only reason for this monsoon’s floods being among the most harmful the country has ever seen, but were a contributing factor. That India’s use of water as a weapon has not escaped notice is clear from the Ecological Threat Report 2025 by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace, which describes how it used it in the present monsoon, now virtually over. One of the most significant factors identified by the report is how the absence of sufficient storage to buffer variations means that even small disruptions at the right times can negatively impact Pakistani agriculture.
The Report also took cognisance of how the IWT suspension was also upsetting the entire region. The signing of a Pakistan-Saudi military agreement meant that if Pakistan had a conflict with India, Saudi Arabia would support it. Then there is the precedent set, with China and Afghanistan getting involved, the former in support of Pakistan, the latter of India. The Report noted that India presently did not have the infrastructure to divert water from Pakistan, tensions in the Middle East could lead to problems. It also detailed how India violated the IWT as soon as it suspended it, by carrying out ‘reservoir flushing’ in the Baglihar and Salal Dams, without notifying Pakistan. Such reservoir flushing is forbidden under the IWT, or at least tightly regulated, because it causes sudden downstream flow changes.
The conclusion becomes inescapable that the world community must intervene and make India obey the IWT. As the upper riparian, it is still bound by international customary law, with the IWT just summarizing its responsibilities under that law. IF it is allowed to get away with this, it would mean that the rules-based international order would receive another blow. India’s internal violations of human rights have extended to disobeying international. Law, not just by tearing up treaties, but by assassinating foreign citizens. It should have become clear that previous failure to check its bad behaviour has led it to assume that it can renege on treaties. It must be stopped now, before it leads the world to some sort of conflagration.
