The bark and bite of Indus Waters Treaty

INDIA LACKS THE REQUIRED INFRASTRUCTURE TO USE THE INDUS SYSTEM AS AN EFFECTIVE HYDRO-DISCIPLINARY TOOL AGAINST PAK

- Mridula Ramesh

placing the Indus Waters' Treaty (IWT) in abeyance bite? To answer this, let's go back to when Pakistan was born and Kashmir was torn apart. The Indus River System, which flows from India to Pakistan, did not pause for partition, although a standstill agreement maintained the pre-Partition water allocation. In October 1947, Pakistan-backed rebels attacked Kashmir. So, on April 1, 1948, when the standstill agreement expired, India flexed its hydrological muscles by turning off the tap. As a result, 5.5% of west Pakistan's agricultural land dried up before sowing, and Lahore lost its main municipal water source. Pakistan had to pay for any water it received through the Indus River system. A ceasefire agreement followed and Kashmir became a formal part of India. According to a senior Pakistani negotiator of the Indus Waters Treaty, "India held all the cards" at the time, evidence that water can be a powerful disciplinary tool.

So, what changed? The IWT. For a decade, India and Pakistan struggled to reach an agreement. Then, in 1957, an El Nino year, drought struck India. India's balance of payments account dropped from a $14 million surplus in 1955-56 to a $656 million deficit in 1956-57. India needed World Bank assistance to resolve its balance of payments crisis, but that came with strings attached. In 1959, the World Bank president convinced India to sign the Indus Waters Treaty, giving Pakistan the water of the three western rivers of the Indus system. India had to pay ~$174 million towards projects that helped Pakistan bypass Indian headworks, while supplying it with water while these projects were built.