‘India’s Indus waters gamble: illegal, impossible, and immoral’

This is apropos a letter to the Editor headlined above carried by the newspaper yesterday. I would like to add that even with accelerated dam-building projects, India would require decades to establish the necessary infrastructure to capture and divert the Western Rivers’ flow substantially.

Experts suggest a timeline of fifteen to twenty years if India aggressively constructs reservoirs, dams, and diversionary canals, all of which would still breach the Treaty. Moreover, achieving complete control would demand not only extraordinary engineering feats but also a blatant and open defiance of international norms, inviting severe diplomatic consequences and international isolation.

If India sets a precedent of suspending a bilateral water-sharing treaty citing terrorism, it would also dangerously expose itself to retaliation.

China, which controls the headwaters of the Brahmaputra River, could similarly argue national security grounds and build mega-dams to divert the flow away from India’s northeastern states. Such a move would have catastrophic consequences for Indian agriculture, drinking water supplies, and hydroelectric generation in states like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Thus, any unilateral move to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty would not only undermine India’s credibility but could also backfire catastrophically in other critical water-sharing disputes.

The recent attempt to link a localized terrorist incident in Pahalgam to suspending the Treaty is fundamentally illogical. The Indus Waters Treaty concerns the sharing and management of water resources; it has no provision linking it to security issues or counterterrorism measures.

Punishing millions of innocent civilians in Pakistan, who have no involvement in terrorist activities, by cutting off their access to essential water supplies would constitute collective punishment, a violation of international humanitarian law, and an act of aggression. The connection drawn between terrorism and water rights is not only irrational but represents a deeply unethical approach to international diplomacy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025