Pakistan has raised alarm at the United Nations over India’s unilateral decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, calling it an unprecedented threat to Pakistan’s water security and regional stability.
Describing the move as a deliberate “weaponisation of water,” Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Usman Jadoon said India’s actions constitute material breaches of the landmark 1960 treaty. Speaking at the Global Water Bankruptcy Policy Roundtable, hosted by Canada and the United Nations University on Tuesday, he noted that since April last year, India had repeatedly violated the treaty, including disrupting downstream water flows without notice and withholding critical hydrological data.
“Pakistan’s position is unequivocal: the treaty remains legally binding and allows no unilateral suspension or modification,” Ambassador Jadoon emphasized.
He highlighted the treaty’s six-decade record as a time-tested framework for equitable and predictable management of the Indus River basin, which sustains over 80% of Pakistan’s agricultural water needs and supports the livelihoods of more than 240 million people.
Ambassador Jadoon warned that water insecurity has become a systemic global risk, impacting food production, energy, public health, and human security. For Pakistan, he said, this is a lived reality: a semi-arid, climate-vulnerable, lower-riparian country facing floods, droughts, accelerated glacier melt, groundwater depletion, and rapid population growth — all putting immense strain on its water systems.
He outlined Pakistan’s domestic efforts to strengthen water resilience, including integrated planning, flood protection, irrigation rehabilitation, groundwater replenishment, and ecosystem restoration, citing national initiatives such as ‘Living Indus’ and ‘Recharge Pakistan’. Yet, he stressed that systemic water risks cannot be addressed unilaterally, particularly in shared river basins.
“Predictability, transparency, and cooperation in transboundary water governance are matters of survival for downstream populations,” he said.
Ambassador Jadoon called for water insecurity to be formally recognised as a global systemic risk ahead of the 2026 UN Water Conference, urging that cooperation and adherence to international water law be central to shared water governance to safeguard vulnerable downstream communities.
