Government preparing ‘short, medium and long-term plans’ for this, says C.R. Patil after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah; his remark comes a day after India announced that it was putting on hold the six-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which is fully dependent on the Indus tributaries
India will ensure that “not a drop of water will go to Pakistan”, Water Resources Minister C.R. Patil said on Friday (April 25, 2025).
The government was preparing “short, medium and long-term plans” to implement this, he told reporters, after a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Indus river system – Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej – is Pakistan’s main source of water. Eighty per cent of its cultivated land, which is about 16 million hectares, relies on water from the Indus system. Nearly 93% of the water from Indus is used for irrigation, powering the country’s agricultural backbone and overall contributes nearly 25% of the country’s GDP.
Mr. Patil’s statement follows a letter on Thursday (April 24, 2025) by Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, to her Pakistan counterpart, Syed Ali Murtaza, that India was keeping the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) “in abeyance with immediate effect”.
“The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” her letter says.
The “security uncertainties” have directly impeded India’s “full utilisation rights”, and Pakistan’s action of not responding to previous requests by India to renegotiate the treaty was a “breach of trust”.
A government source told The Hindu that as Pakistan had been informed about India’s position on the treaty, there was “no need” to inform the World Bank (WB), which has historically played a role as an arbiter or appointed neutral experts to solve differences between India and Pakistan on sharing the waters from the Indus system of rivers.
Water warfare: Pakistan
Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday (April 24, 2025) said India’s “reckless suspension” of the Indus Waters Treaty was an” act of water warfare.”
A spokesperson for the World Bank said “it did not opine” on “treaty-related sovereign decisions taken by its member countries.”
Following the Pahalgam attack, India announced on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) that it would hold the IWT, in place since 1960, “in abeyance”. On the surface, this implies that India will stop its periodic communication with Pakistan on sharing hydrological data on the Indus rivers, or keep them apprised of infrastructural work on hydroelectric projects in the Chenab, Jhelum and the Indus main, also known as the western rivers.
However, even prior to the Pahalgam incident, the Permanent Indus Commission — or the teams of experts from India and Pakistan that attempt to resolve disputes regarding the sharing of the waters of the Indus basin — has not convened since 2022. India in 2023 had called on Pakistan to “renegotiate” the treaty primarily because several of the original circumstances that prevailed when the treaty was signed had changed. Among them were changes in the population structure, water requirements, the threat from climate-related cataclysms and ‘cross-border terrorism’. These were among the reasons India cited to renegotiate the six-decade-old treaty.
The main ask was to evolve a new dispute resolution mechanism. Under the terms of the IWT, India cannot create significant hydropower storage on the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, Chenab — and must maintain water levels at prescribed levels, to ensure that no untoward flooding or disruption of Pakistan’s agriculture happens. Its prominent hydropower projects on these rivers such as the Kishenganga project and Baglihar project are run-of-the river, meaning they divert the flow of the river to generate electricity. These projects do not halt the flow by creating storage structures, though in nearly all the disputes over the years regarding hydel projects, Pakistan has accused India of modifying the design of structures to be able to perniciously control the flow of the rivers. India had then clarified that its intentions were purely to keep the projects running in optimal conditions. “For India to weaponise the waters of the Indus, it has to completely ignore the IWT. Under the current terms of the treaty, this can’t be done,” said a scientist affiliated to the Central Water Commission.
Following the Pahalgam attack, sources told The Hindu that India will explore “options that it has never considered” under the IWT. This could include withdrawing from talks around evolving a new dispute resolution mechanism, change the design of its hydropower electric projects to allow it to store greater quantities of water and deploy ‘draw down flushing’ of its reservoirs. Flushing, normally done to keep the water-bearing tunnels free from silt and debris, can also be used to control the flow of rivers downstream.
Pahalgam terror attack: Pakistan won’t get a drop of water, says Jal Shakti Minister
Government preparing ‘short, medium and long-term plans’ for this, says C.R. Patil after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah; his remark comes a day after India announced that it was putting on hold the six-decade-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which is fully dependent on the Indus tributaries
India will ensure that “not a drop of water will go to Pakistan”, Water Resources Minister C.R. Patil said on Friday (April 25, 2025).
The government was preparing “short, medium and long-term plans” to implement this, he told reporters, after a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Indus river system – Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej – is Pakistan’s main source of water. Eighty per cent of its cultivated land, which is about 16 million hectares, relies on water from the Indus system. Nearly 93% of the water from Indus is used for irrigation, powering the country’s agricultural backbone and overall contributes nearly 25% of the country’s GDP.
Mr. Patil’s statement follows a letter on Thursday (April 24, 2025) by Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, to her Pakistan counterpart, Syed Ali Murtaza, that India was keeping the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) “in abeyance with immediate effect”.
“The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” her letter says.
The “security uncertainties” have directly impeded India’s “full utilisation rights”, and Pakistan’s action of not responding to previous requests by India to renegotiate the treaty was a “breach of trust”.
A government source told The Hindu that as Pakistan had been informed about India’s position on the treaty, there was “no need” to inform the World Bank (WB), which has historically played a role as an arbiter or appointed neutral experts to solve differences between India and Pakistan on sharing the waters from the Indus system of rivers.
Water warfare: Pakistan
Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday (April 24, 2025) said India’s “reckless suspension” of the Indus Waters Treaty was an” act of water warfare.”
A spokesperson for the World Bank said “it did not opine” on “treaty-related sovereign decisions taken by its member countries.”
Following the Pahalgam attack, India announced on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) that it would hold the IWT, in place since 1960, “in abeyance”. On the surface, this implies that India will stop its periodic communication with Pakistan on sharing hydrological data on the Indus rivers, or keep them apprised of infrastructural work on hydroelectric projects in the Chenab, Jhelum and the Indus main, also known as the western rivers.
However, even prior to the Pahalgam incident, the Permanent Indus Commission — or the teams of experts from India and Pakistan that attempt to resolve disputes regarding the sharing of the waters of the Indus basin — has not convened since 2022. India in 2023 had called on Pakistan to “renegotiate” the treaty primarily because several of the original circumstances that prevailed when the treaty was signed had changed. Among them were changes in the population structure, water requirements, the threat from climate-related cataclysms and ‘cross-border terrorism’. These were among the reasons India cited to renegotiate the six-decade-old treaty.
The main ask was to evolve a new dispute resolution mechanism. Under the terms of the IWT, India cannot create significant hydropower storage on the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, Chenab — and must maintain water levels at prescribed levels, to ensure that no untoward flooding or disruption of Pakistan’s agriculture happens. Its prominent hydropower projects on these rivers such as the Kishenganga project and Baglihar project are run-of-the river, meaning they divert the flow of the river to generate electricity. These projects do not halt the flow by creating storage structures, though in nearly all the disputes over the years regarding hydel projects, Pakistan has accused India of modifying the design of structures to be able to perniciously control the flow of the rivers. India had then clarified that its intentions were purely to keep the projects running in optimal conditions. “For India to weaponise the waters of the Indus, it has to completely ignore the IWT. Under the current terms of the treaty, this can’t be done,” said a scientist affiliated to the Central Water Commission.
Following the Pahalgam attack, sources told The Hindu that India will explore “options that it has never considered” under the IWT. This could include withdrawing from talks around evolving a new dispute resolution mechanism, change the design of its hydropower electric projects to allow it to store greater quantities of water and deploy ‘draw down flushing’ of its reservoirs. Flushing, normally done to keep the water-bearing tunnels free from silt and debris, can also be used to control the flow of rivers downstream.
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