NEW YORK: Pakistan has warned the United Nations that India’s unilateral decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance has triggered an unprecedented crisis for Pakistan’s water security and poses serious risks to regional stability.
Addressing the Global Water Bankruptcy Policy Roundtable hosted by Canada and the United Nations University on Tuesday, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, described India’s move as a deliberate weaponisation of water and said it constituted material breaches of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
He said that since April last year, India had committed a number of serious violations of the treaty, including unannounced interruptions to downstream water flows and the withholding of essential hydrological data required under the agreement.
“Pakistan’s position is unequivocal. The treaty remains legally intact and does not allow any unilateral suspension or modification,” Ambassador Jadoon said.
He stressed that for more than six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty had served as a proven framework for the equitable and predictable management of the Indus River basin, which underpins one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world.
The basin, he said, supplies more than 80 percent of Pakistan’s agricultural water requirements and supports the lives and livelihoods of over 240 million people.
Ambassador Jadoon said water insecurity had emerged as a systemic global risk, with far-reaching consequences for food production, energy systems, public health, livelihoods and human security.
“For Pakistan, this is not a theoretical concern but a lived reality,” he said, describing the country as a semi-arid, climate-vulnerable, lower riparian state grappling with floods, droughts, rapid glacier melt, groundwater depletion and fast population growth. He said these factors were placing severe strain on already stressed water systems.
Outlining Pakistan’s response, he said the country was working to strengthen water resilience through integrated planning, flood protection measures, rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure, groundwater recharge and ecosystem restoration.
He cited initiatives such as Living Indus and Recharge Pakistan as major national efforts, while emphasising that systemic water risks could not be addressed by any country acting alone, particularly in the context of shared river basins.
Predictability, transparency and cooperation in transboundary water governance, he said, were essential for the survival of downstream populations.
Ambassador Jadoon also called for water insecurity to be formally recognised as a systemic global risk in the lead-up to the 2026 UN Water Conference. He urged the international community to place cooperation and respect for international water law at the core of shared water governance frameworks to ensure meaningful protection for vulnerable downstream communities.
