“India's upstream dam and hydropower development on rivers governed by the Indus Waters Treaty has raised concerns in Pakistan over flow regulation, timing, and data transparency, contributing to strategic tensions between the two countries as of May 2026.”

The Indus Waters Treaty allocates western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) primarily to Pakistan with limited Indian use for hydropower, but requires data sharing and prior consultation. Recent developments have heightened concerns over compliance and transparency.

On 23 April 2025, India announced that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 would be held in abeyance with immediate effect. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah stated the treaty would never be restored and that water would be diverted for Indian use. Pakistan called it an act of war. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the treaty remains legally binding regardless, but India rejected the ruling and boycotted subsequent proceedings. Dam maintenance and flushing operations at Indian projects on the Chenab in May 2025 caused flow levels at downstream Pakistani gauging stations to fall by approximately 90 percent, leading Pakistani agricultural authorities to warn of immediate threats to standing crops.

In retaliation, Delhi suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), informing Islamabad it would hold the 65-year-old agreement “in abeyance . . . until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.” The IWT requires the parties to share a good deal of data on project development, river flows, and hydrological conditions. By suspending the treaty, India can also cease data sharing, depriving Pakistan of flood warnings, for example, prospectively hampering the nation’s water management and potentially imperiling Pakistani lives and livelihoods.

Indian hydroelectric projects on the remaining two rivers — the Kishenganga dam on the Jhelum, and Baglihar dam and the under-construction Ratle dam on the Chenab — have sparked concerns in Pakistan, which has protested against them under the IWT. Islamabad alleges that the projects could allow India to lower water levels into Pakistan, and that the Kishenganga dam could also change the course of the Jhelum. New Delhi rejects these allegations.

Pakistan has achieved a key procedural victory in its long-standing dispute with India under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), after the Court of Arbitration directed New Delhi to submit operational records from two contested hydropower projects. The Court of Arbitration, established under the 1960 IWT, issued a 13-page procedural order requiring India to provide operational logbooks from the Baglihar and Kishanganga hydroelectric plants by February 9, 2026. Pakistan has maintained that India has misused the IWT's hydropower provisions by overstating installed capacity and projected electricity loads to justify excessive water storage, actions Islamabad says threaten Pakistan's water security.

Pakistan has reacted sharply to India’s decision to move ahead with the Rs 5,129 crore Sawalkote hydroelectric project on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir, accusing New Delhi of violating its international treaty obligations... Pakistani officials have expressed grave concerns that the Sawalkote project is part of a broader “dewatering” strategy designed to deprive Pakistan of critical water resources from the western rivers allocated under the IWT framework.

In April 2025, India suspended participation after a terror attack, citing unresolved issues like terrorism and climate change, despite the treaty’s general success in managing water sharing for decades. Pakistan’s reliance on the Indus system for over 90 percent of its irrigation water makes any disruption an existential threat to its agricultural economy and stability. The treaty is durable but faces recent strains.

The IWT currently lacks robust mechanisms to address climate change and ensure compliance with its provisions, particularly regarding data collection and sharing. This reduces transparency, undermines trust between India and Pakistan, and limits the treaty’s capacity to adapt to changing hydrological realities. The IWT requires parties to report flow data, but compliance with these provisions has been inconsistent.

As of April 2026, one year on, the treaty remains in abeyance. India and Pakistan have each accused the other of breaching the agreement. The Court of Arbitration issued a supplemental award in June 2025 affirming its competence over the dispute, but the treaty's full operation has not been restored.

22 अप्रैल 2025 को जम्मू-कश्मीर के पहलगाम में हुए आतंकी हमले के बाद भारत ने 23 अप्रैल 2025 को सिंधु जल संधि को 'तत्काल प्रभाव से अस्थायी रूप से निलंबित' करने का फैसला किया. संधि के निलंबन से भारत को जल भंडारण बांध बनाने, जल प्रवाह डेटा साझा करने से रोकने, और पनबिजली परियोजनाओं पर डिज़ाइन प्रतिबंध हटाने की स्वतंत्रता मिलती है. यह कदम भारत-पाकिस्तान संबंधों में एक महत्वपूर्ण और अभूतपूर्व कदम है, जो 64 साल पुराने सहयोग के प्रतीक को बदलकर एक रणनीतिक हथियार में तब्दील करता है.

The Indus Waters Treaty has faced disputes over India's upstream hydropower projects on western rivers, with Pakistan raising concerns about flow reduction, timing, and lack of transparency, leading to ongoing tensions.

Even as India steps up construction of J&K hydel projects, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Tuesday concluded critical hearings on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), with Pakistan targeting key projects that are not before the World Bank arbitration institutions. In its January 19 memorial to PCA, Pakistan inserted the 624 MW Kiru hydel project off Chenab in Kishtwar as a 'case study' and has termed India's claims on water storage entitlement at Kiru 'wildly exaggerated'. The counsels alleged that India has 'deliberately set out to maximise pondage to hurt Pakistan'.

Pakistan on Friday called on India to fully restore the Indus Waters Treaty, warning that unilateral attempts to suspend the agreement risk turning a vital shared resource into a political tool. India placed the treaty in abeyance in April 2025 after a surge in hostilities following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that it blamed on Pakistan-backed insurgents. While water flows have not been fully halted, the move suspended key cooperation mechanisms, including data sharing and dispute resolution processes. Pakistan has consistently rejected the move as unlawful, maintaining that the treaty contains no provision allowing unilateral suspension.

In a bold move that shocked regional observers, India announced its suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (1) and threatened to halt or curb water flows. In every interaction with stakeholders, the lack of reliable, publicly accessible data emerged as one of the most pressing challenges for effective water management. Adherence to these principles of confidence building have been challenged by competing national development pressures, political distrust, and failures to confer with one another when launching new water infrastructure.

Following the terror attack in Pahalgam in April 2025, India has placed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan in abeyance. ... India's leadership has made it clear, blood and water won't flow together.

Shunning the speculation that it will “fix” decades of political and military tension between India and Pakistan, the World Bank on May 9, 2025, said that the organisation is merely a facilitator in the Indus Waters Treaty that India suspended in April. World Bank President Ajay Banga clarified that the Bank's role is limited to being a facilitator and paying fees for neutral experts or arbitration courts, not making decisions or fixing the problem.

“India Blocks Kishanganga Water Flow, Violates Indus Waters Treaty: Tensions Escalate,” Daily Times, May. 22, 2025. By unilaterally pausing its obligations and ceasing hydrological data sharing, India has arguably violated both the spirit and letter of the agreement.

Pakistan’s Permanent Indus Commission objected to the Kishanganga hydroelectric project initiated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on grounds that it violated the Indus Water Treaty. The controversial Baglihar and Kishenganga projects have sparked a passionate debate about India’s role in Pakistan’s water crisis. Pakistan’s dependence on the Indus Basin for economic security, and vulnerability as lower riparian to further Indian projects all underlie the heated water discourse among farmers, political leaders, and the public at large.

Pakistan has indicated that it may also request interim measures to prevent further damage to its contractual rights, which could include stopping actions that further aggravate the dispute. The court, however, did not decide on interim measures at this stage, but clarified that any such concession could only be granted by the Court of Arbitration, not a Neutral Expert. (Translated from Urdu)

In December 2025, Pakistan raised concerns over what it termed “unusual, abrupt variations” in the flow of the Indus waters, particularly in the Chenab River. Islamabad alleged that sudden changes in discharge patterns—without prior intimation—were affecting downstream availability, rekindling familiar anxieties around water security and upstream control.

The 117th Meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) between India and Pakistan was held. Both sides discussed the exchange of hydrological and flood data during which the Indian side underscored that all its projects are fully compliant with the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. Technical discussions were held regarding ongoing projects including Pakal Dul, Kiru and Lower Kalnai.

In August 2024, India suspended the meetings of the bilateral Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) until Islamabad agreed to start negotiations to rewrite the treaty. India has three times called for bilateral negotiations to “review and modify” the IWT since January 2023, citing an acrimonious dispute over its entitlement for limited use of the waters of rivers allotted to Pakistan. Pakistan's Ambassador Munir Akram reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to the IWT on February 14, 2025, during a UN Security Council debate, stating Pakistan attaches high priority to its strict implementation.

In recent years, the treaty had come under increasing strain... a growing number of run-of-the-river hydropower projects on the western rivers allocated to Pakistan – combined with concerns over cumulative impacts, design specifications and flow timing – have made technical disputes more frequent and increasingly politicized. Meanwhile, India’s suspension of the treaty in response to security concerns signals a broader shift in bilateral relations, with water emerging as a geopolitical lever.

The PTI report, widely circulated across Indian mainstream media on 4 May 2025, declared that “India Cuts Water Supply to Pakistan from Jammu's Baglihar Dam.” ... What most news coverage failed to critically examine, however, is the technical feasibility and sustainability of such a decision—particularly because the Baglihar Dam, situated on the Chenab River in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, is not a storage-based dam but a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project.

Wapda says Indian capacity on Jhelum, Chenab could rise to 60 days; provinces divided over new dams.

The Indus Waters Treaty (1960) allocates the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) primarily to Pakistan with India having limited rights for run-of-the-river hydropower; it includes provisions for data sharing and prior consultation on projects. Disputes over projects like Baglihar and Kishanganga have historically been resolved through neutral experts or arbitration, confirming ongoing tensions but also treaty functionality.

India has fast-tracked massive hydropower projects in Jammu & Kashmir after suspending the Indus Waters Treaty following the Pahalgam terror attack. The Modi government in New Delhi is unshaken in its resolve, with Indian officials stating that neither the United Nations nor any international court has any jurisdiction over India's sovereign water rights. Pakistan has rushed to the United Nations Security Council over these developments.

The report stresses that India cannot unilaterally suspend, rewrite, or reinterpret the Indus Waters Treaty, emphasizing Article 26 of the treaty.