Indus Waters Treaty

Indus Waters Treaty
Indus river and tributaries
TypeBilateral treaty
Signed19 September 1960
LocationKarachi, Pakistan
Effective1 April 1960
ConditionRatification by both parties
Signatories
Parties
DepositaryWorld Bank
LanguageEnglish

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, mediated by the World Bank, to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries.[1][2][3][4] It was signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960 by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani president Ayub Khan.[5][1]

The Indus river rises in western China, flows northwest through the disputed[6] Kashmir region,[7] first through the Indian-administered Ladakh, and then the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan,[a][9] bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before bifurcating and emptying into the Arabian Sea, its main stem located near the port city of Karachi.[10][11] Treaty gives India control over the waters of the three "Eastern Rivers"—the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej—which have a total mean annual flow of 33 million acre⋅ft (41 billion m3). Control over the three "Western Rivers"—the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum—which have a total mean annual flow of 135 million acre⋅ft (167 billion m3), was given to Pakistan.[12][13] India received control of roughly 20% of the total water carried by the rivers, while Pakistan received 80%. The treaty allows India to use the water of Western Rivers for limited irrigation use and unlimited non-consumptive uses such as power generation, navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc.[14] It lays down detailed regulations for India in building projects over the Western Rivers. The preamble of the treaty recognises the rights and obligations of each country for the optimum water use from the Indus system of rivers in a spirit of goodwill, friendship and cooperation. The treaty is also meant to alleviate Pakistani fears that India could potentially cause floods or droughts in Pakistan, especially during a potential conflict.[15][16]

The Indus Waters Treaty is considered one of the most successful water sharing endeavors in the world today, even though analysts acknowledge the need to update certain technical specifications and expand the scope of the agreement to address climate change.[17][18][19][20] On 23 April 2025, following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, the Government of India suspended the treaty, citing national security concerns and alleging Pakistan’s support of state-sponsored terrorism.

  1. ^ a b Patricia Bauer. "Indus Waters Treaty:India-Pakistan [1960]". Encyclopedia Britannica website. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  2. ^ Haines, Daniel (8 March 2017). "The Rivers Run Wild (Indus Waters Treaty-1960) – Nearly 60 Years Since Their Landmark Treaty, The Pakistan-India Water Dispute Remains Contentious". Newsweek Pakistan (magazine).
  3. ^ "Full text of 'Indus Water Treaty' with Annexures, World Bank" (PDF). treaties.un.org. 1960. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  4. ^ "War over water". The Guardian. 3 June 2002.
  5. ^ "How the Indus Treaty was signed". The Hindu. 28 September 2016.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference indus-britannica-quote was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary sources (a) through (e), reflecting due weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (h) through (i) below, "held" is also considered politicised usage, as is the term "occupied", (see (j) below).
    (a) Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories.";
    (b) Pletcher, Kenneth, Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 16 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state.";
    (c) "Kashmir", Encyclopedia Americana, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, p. 328, ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6 C. E Bosworth, University of Manchester Quote: "KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partly by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947";
    (d) Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1191–, ISBN 978-0-415-93922-5 Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China."
    (e) Talbot, Ian (2016), A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, Yale University Press, pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-0-300-19694-8 Quote: "We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.";
    (f) Skutsch, Carl (2015) [2007], "China: Border War with India, 1962", in Ciment, James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II (2nd ed.), London and New York: Routledge, p. 573, ISBN 978-0-7656-8005-1, The situation between the two nations was complicated by the 1957–1959 uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule. Refugees poured across the Indian border, and the Indian public was outraged. Any compromise with China on the border issue became impossible. Similarly, China was offended that India had given political asylum to the Dalai Lama when he fled across the border in March 1959. In late 1959, there were shots fired between border patrols operating along both the ill-defined McMahon Line and in the Aksai Chin.
    (g) Clary, Christopher (2022), The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 109, ISBN 978-0-19-763840-8, Territorial Dispute: The situation along the Sino-Indian frontier continued to worsen. In late July (1959), an Indian reconnaissance patrol was blocked, "apprehended", and eventually expelled after three weeks in custody at the hands of a larger Chinese force near Khurnak Fort in Aksai Chin. ... Circumstances worsened further in October 1959, when a major class at Kongka Pass in eastern Ladakh led to nine dead and ten captured Indian border personnel, making it by far the most serious Sino-Indian class since India's independence.
    (h) Bose, Sumantra (2009), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, pp. 294, 291, 293, ISBN 978-0-674-02855-5 Quote: "J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad" (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million.), it includes the sparsely populated "Northern Areas" of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control."
    (i) Fisher, Michael H. (2018), An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, p. 166, ISBN 978-1-107-11162-2 Quote: "Kashmir's identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised "Line of Control" still separating Pakistani-held Azad ("Free") Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir.";
    (j) Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. 10, ISBN 978-1-84904-621-3 Quote:"Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'."
  8. ^ "Indus River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  9. ^ "Kashmir: region, Indian subcontinent". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 13 August 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2016. Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent. It is bounded by the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east (both parts of China), by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south, by Pakistan to the west, and by Afghanistan to the northwest. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, ... The southern and southeastern portions constitute the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian- and Pakistani-administered portions are divided by a "line of control" agreed to in 1972, although neither country recognizes it as an international boundary."
  10. ^ Ahmad, Nafis; Lodrick, Deryck (6 February 2019). "Indus River". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  11. ^ Natural Wonders of the World. Penguin Random House/DK & Smithsonian. 2017. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-4654-9492-4. Archived from the original on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. ^ "Explained: What Does India Suspending the Indus Waters Treaty Mean?", The Wire, 24 April 2025
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference World Bank Pakistan 2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Soofi, Ahmer Bilal; Malik, Ayesha. "India's First Shot at the Indus Waters Treaty". hilal.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Preamble of Indus water treaty" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  16. ^ Chandrasekharan, S. (11 December 2017). "Indus Water Treaty: Review is not an Option". South Asia Analysis Group. Archived from the original on 20 December 2017.
  17. ^ Abbasi, Arshad H (2024). "Revisiting or Renegotiating the Indus Water Treaty – A Death Sentence for Peace in South Asia". Center for Research & Security Studies. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  18. ^ Zawahri, Neda; Michel, David (4 July 2018). "Assessing the Indus Waters Treaty from a comparative perspective". Water International. 43 (5): 696–712. Bibcode:2018WatIn..43..696Z. doi:10.1080/02508060.2018.1498994. ISSN 0250-8060 – via ResearchGate.
  19. ^ Jamal, Nasir (3 October 2014). ""Scrapping water treaty is no solution", says Pakistan's Indus waters commissioner". Dialogue Earth. Originally located at thethirdpole.net.
  20. ^ Bakshi, Gitanjali; Trivedi, Sahiba (2011), Indus Equation (PDF), Strategic Foresight Group


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