Mon Jun 30 06:31:43 UTC 2025: Here’s a news article summarizing the provided text, focusing on the key points and context:
**India Puts Indus Waters Treaty in Abeyance, Citing Security Concerns**
**New Delhi, India – June 30, 2025** – Citing security concerns following the Pahalgam terror attack, India has taken the unprecedented step of putting the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, marking the first time since its signing in 1960 that the agreement has been suspended. The move raises questions about the future of water sharing between India and Pakistan, especially given the treaty’s resilience through previous conflicts.
The Hindu spoke with Professor Daniel Haines, a historian specializing in water disputes, from University College London, for his perspective on the implications of India’s action. Professor Haines, author of “Rivers Divided: Water in the Making of India and Pakistan,” highlighted the historical context of the IWT, which was designed to manage the division of the Indus basin’s waters following the partition of British India.
“This is a new development,” Prof. Haines said. “The Treaty has held remarkably steady throughout all of the previous military conflicts between India and Pakistan.” He explained that the core issue revolves around the upstream/downstream dynamic, with India asserting its sovereign right over waters flowing through its territory, while Pakistan emphasizes its right to continued water flow as a downstream nation.
While acknowledging Pakistan’s vulnerabilities, particularly regarding the Chenab River, Prof. Haines cautioned against exaggerating India’s current capacity to drastically cut off Pakistan’s water supply. “It isn’t the case that India has a kind of hand on the tap of the whole water supply to Pakistan,” he stated. He clarified that roughly one-third of Pakistan’s water in the Indus system originates in Indian-controlled territory. India has been restrained by the provisions of the Treaty for the storage works so far and it would take years, if not decades, for India to really build up the capacity to have a huge impact on water flow.
Professor Haines suggests that India’s decision to suspend the treaty likely stems from growing frustration with its dispute resolution mechanisms, especially after arbitration decisions in the mid-2000s and early 2010s yielded mixed results. He revealed that India signaled its desire to renegotiate aspects of the IWT as early as 2023. While still in affect, the Indian Government asserted it could flush sediment out of reservoirs at different times of the year to the ones that the treaty allows, and so this was done, I believe, for the Baglihar reservoir.
While the immediate impact of suspending the IWT is largely symbolic, Professor Haines emphasizes the long-term implications for larger development projects. He also suggest that some sort of renegotiation is inevitable, and if it is, both countries have a real opportunity to increase the environmental protections which the previous Indus Waters Treaty said very little about, to really get on top of data sharing, not just for water flow but also think about cooperative hazard management.
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