Indus Water Treaty

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SSridhar
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Significant risk to Uri hydro plant: Pakistan retaliation met swift CISF action during Operation Sindoor; how families were evacuated in time - ToI
Pakistan's retaliation put the Uri hydroelectric plant near the Line of Control (LoC) under significant risk during a high-risk security situation that unfolded after India launched Operation Sindoor. However, the CISF successfully foiled the attempted attack, protecting both the power project and the residents living nearby.

On Tuesday, the CISF honoured 19 of its personnel with the director general's disc for their extraordinary courage during this high-risk situation. The awards were presented at a ceremony in the CISF headquarters, where the leadership praised the team for safeguarding a critical national installation during intense cross-border shelling.

The CISF provided counterterror security cover to the Uri Hydro Electric Power Projects (UHEP-I and II), located along the Jhelum river in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district, located 8-10 kms from the LoC.

The personnel have been honoured and recognise for their door-to-door evacuation of civilians in the time of high military tensions. The troops evacuated women, children, NHPC (national hydroelectric power corporation) staff and their families -- amidst Pakistani shelling.

"Their prompt and fearless actions ensured the safe evacuation of around 250 civilians, preventing any loss of life. Even as rounds landed dangerously close to the premises, the personnel continued to reinforce bunkers, maintain communication lines through POLNET and satellite systems, and provide emergency assistance," the statement said.

The troops also neutralised "hostile" drones targeting Indian installations and secured armoury stockpiles by quickly redistributing weapons to avoid potential destruction, it added.

Throughout the crisis, the "integrity" of critical national assets remained protected due to the vigilance and preparedness of the CISF personnel, the statement said.

Commandant Ravi Yadav, along with deputy commandant Manohar Singh and assistant commandant Subash Kumar, led teams at Uri-I and Uri-II in initiating immediate protective measures for the installations and nearby townships.

The personnel recognised include constables, head constables, inspectors and sub-inspectors from both Uri units. Among them are Constables Sushil Vasant Kamble, Raziqe Ahmad Abdul Rafique, Wankhede Ravindra Gulab, Tridev Chakma, Sohan Lal, Mufeed Ahmad, Mahesh Kumar and Sandenaboina Raju; Head Constables Gurjit Singh, Manoj Kumar Sharma and Ram Lal; Inspector Deepak Kumar Jha; Sub-inspectors Anil Kumar and Deepak Kumar; and Assistant Sub-Inspectors Rajeev Kumar and Sukhdev Singh.

According to the CISF, "They carried out real-time analysis of incoming shell trajectories, identified safe zones and organised the relocation of residents to bunker shelters.

"India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6-7, under which 9 major terror hideouts were blown to bits in Pakistan and PoK. This counterterror action was taken as a strong retaliatory measure after a Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack in South Kashmir's Pahalgam.
SSridhar
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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India speeds-up projects in J&K as Pakistan raises IWT at UN - ET
While India is accelerating work and fast-tracking clearances for hydropower projects in Jammu & Kashmir after suspending the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), Pakistan has stepped up its campaign against New Delhi at international fora.

Its latest move: a letter to the UN Security Council accusing India of "weaponising water" by placing the IWT in abeyance, which, Islamabad claims, threatens the human rights and food security of millions of Pakistanis.

In a December 11 communication addressed to the UNSC President, the UN Secretary-General, and the President of the UN General Assembly, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar flagged what he called India's "continued weaponisation of water" following the "unlawful and unilateral" suspension of the Treaty. He warned this posed a "grave risk to regional peace and security".

The four-page letter, which Pakistan has sought to circulate as an official Security Council document under the agenda item "India-Pakistan question", argues that any disruption in water flows could trigger a humanitarian crisis affecting 240m people and jeopardise Pakistan's agriculture and food supply. Pakistan also cites UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions recognising access to water as a human right. Islamabad is currently serving a two-year term (2025-26) as a non-permanent UNSC member.

Pakistan further claims that India's "unilateral" suspension of the IWT under the "false pretext" of the Pahalgam attack violates customary international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. It warns that the move sets a "troubling precedent", enabling states to exit treaties on the grounds of "changed circumstances" to mask strategic or political objectives.

Islamabad is also relying on recent correspondence by five UN experts and Special Rapporteurs-made public on December 15-to strengthen its case. The communication reportedly raises concerns about India's use of force against Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack without "credible evidence", as well as the unilateral IWT suspension, saying both could have "severe adverse impacts" on Pakistanis' human rights.

Pakistan's posture has also been bolstered by recent developments at the Hague-based Court of Arbitration (CoA) and in the Neutral Expert proceedings on the Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects.
SSridhar
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Indus Water Treaty put on hold, government clears another Chenab hydel project - ToI
Paving the way for the construction of a project of strategic significance following suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), a panel of the environment ministry has approved the 260 MW Dulhasti State-II hydropower project on the Chenab river in Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir.

It comes two months after a similar approval was granted for construction of the 1,856-MW Sawalkot hydroelectric project on the same river in Ramban district of the UT. Approvals to the project came from the expert appraisal committee of the ministry on hydel projects.

Both these projects will harness the potential of the Chenab - one of the western rivers along with Indus and Jhelum whose waters currently flow unchecked to Pakistan despite India's right to use it for non-consumptive purposes, including hydro-power generation.

Estimated to cost Rs 3,200 crore, Dulhasti State-II is an extension of 390 MW Dulhasti State-I, which has been successfully operating since 2007. Under the plan, water will be diverted from Stage-I through a separate tunnel.

The project will require over 8 hectares of private land to be acquired from two villages, Benzwar and Palmer, in Kishtwar district.

So far, only 3,482 MW capacity of hydro-power generation units has been constructed by India out of an estimated potential of about 20,000 MW in Jammu & Kashmir which could be harnessed from power projects on its western rivers.
Vayutuvan
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Vayutuvan »

How long before India can start storing water and generating power from these projects? They need to be pushed through on an accelerated timetable.
VishnuS
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by VishnuS »

Vayutuvan wrote: 30 Dec 2025 05:12 How long before India can start storing water and generating power from these projects? They need to be pushed through on an accelerated timetable.
Full diversion is at least a decade away, partial diversion is at least a couple of years away....

But the brilliance of IWT abeyance is not in water diversion, but taking away the predictability of water flow for irrigation...

If the crop doesn't get enough water to irrigate even for a week during the crop growth then that season's crop growth is gone...

Today, we don't have the ability to stop water, but Pak also doesn't know when we will let the water flow or stop it for a few days/weeks and that's what hurting them.

Every barage, dam or water storage facility is affected by silt and cleaning that away takes time, money and it done in the background with less publicity, in short this will either get less importance and funding than all the noise Pak makes in UN, WB, other international forums around IWT.
sanjaykumar
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by sanjaykumar »

Is there evidence that India has in fact utilised this leverage?

I am not sure it would go down well with the public. So perhaps they are doing it with plausible deniability. Or surreptitiously.
chetak
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by chetak »

sanjaykumar wrote: 30 Dec 2025 08:04 Is there evidence that India has in fact utilised this leverage?

I am not sure it would go down well with the public. So perhaps they are doing it with plausible deniability. Or surreptitiously.


sanjaykumar ji,

Whatever be the future outcome of the IWT, now suspended or held in abeyance by India, the days of the extortionate terms that were prised out of India either by blackmail, bribery or even geopolitical threat are gone forever.

the pakis will be lucky if the manage to get 30-40% of the Indus system of river waters

The equally greedy beedis have been long quoting this IWT as an example of how the upper riparian state should behave and were demanding a similar very large percentage of the Ganges-Padma Water Treaty of 1996, that is now coming up for renewal in 2026

There is no other idiotic example of any water sharing treaty in the world where the upper riparian (India) sawed of both of her own feet to please some greedy and agenda driven amriki goras and simultaneously also appease a jihadi state, even while being forced into giving the jihadi state huge moneys to build water related infrastructure at India's cost

neverwho was an incompetent who couldn't even buy himself the nobel

This Ganges-Padma Water Treaty may either get wiped out all together or at best give the beedis a minor share of the waters with India rightly reserving the bulk of the waters for itself

It's time for our greedy and entitled jihadi neighbours to learn how to respect their elders and betters, if they don't want to see the wrong end of the Indian stick.
I am not sure it would go down well with the public
One sees a sea change in the public's perception, especially post Op Sindoor, post amriki sanctions, and also post Dhurandhar.

India's Strong responses to the amriki sanctions have consolidated Modi ji's global popularity and particularly his strong man image

The burning of Hindu's in kangladesh by the jihadi beedis have ignited feelings of deep social revulsion and cultural rejection that will directly impact elections in bengal

The national feeling now is: History gawah hai, hum ghar mein ghus kar maarte hain.

BTW, Dhurandhar is a phenomenon that we have not yet fully understood. To write it off as a mere bollywood production would be foolishness, or even simplistic. There is a nationalistic depth to it that has yet to be explored in it's many dimensions.

The seeds sown by Dhurandhar and the sentiments that were generated across the length and breadth of India (even the pakis watched the pirated copies of Dhurandhar in very large numbers) have left the desert cults with a sense of dismay and foreboding.

The reaction of the Indian public was/is as unprecedented as it was/is unexpected. The movie was not promoted in the usual sense but almost purely by word of mouth. What was it about the movie that literally pulled audiences into theatres, even as many watched it for a second or third time, each time discovering another dimension that they had missed in their previous viewings

SIR and the stamp of SC approval, even in the face of repeated judicial challenges, have further sealed the electoral stench of woke, jihadi and commie sponsored vote bank manipulation and generated a very strong sense of anti jihadi antipathy because of the rampant vote chori via demographic enrichment of the electoral base, thus anti democratically devastating the will of thousands of unsuspecting and law abiding voters, a theft of democracy that the congi and its affiliates have surreptitiously indulged in for multiple decades, leading to the wanton distorting of the true democratic of the will of the people of India

This is what mumtaz bano and the woke congis, samajwadis, and the jihadis are dreading
chetak
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by chetak »

Vayutuvan wrote: 30 Dec 2025 05:12 How long before India can start storing water and generating power from these projects? They need to be pushed through on an accelerated timetable.


Vayutuvan ji,

we have them by the short and curlies only during the lean seasons, when the water flow is much reduced

That's enough to hurt them for now.

The rest of the agenda is new infrastructure dependant and will take time for India to implement

But now, the lack of hydrological data from India (real-time flow, snowmelt, and discharge info) and the uncertainty of water flows is what is hitting them hard.

The clearance of silt from Indian dams which was "FORBIDDEN" under the IWT as interpreted by the pakis by using various subterfuges and legalese. The very fact that such interpretations were possible by the lax conditions imposed by the agenda driven goras who operated slyly and cunningly via the world bank (to give the local yokels the impression that the WB was underwriting the IWT hence the IWT should be seen as eminently kosher), and the language of the treaty negotiated by the clueless Indian signatory was proof that India was ill served and her national interests were given the go by while upholding the paki requirements above and beyond the call

Given India's current geopolitical and geo economic heft, the WB has very wisely maintained both, an arms length distance and a studied silence on the matter, except for occasional rumblings when poked and prodded by the amrikis to please the colonized paki jihadis


Key Points about the IWT & Siltation:

Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej): India has unrestricted use and rights to build storage/hydro projects, but siltation remains a major problem, reducing dam capacity (e.g., Bhakra Nangal).

Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab): India's use is restricted to non-consumptive uses like run-of-the-river power, with limited storage, which Pakistan often objects to, making large dams (and thus desilting) difficult.

"Forbidden" Implication: While not explicitly banning desilting, the treaty's strict limits on storage capacity and Pakistan's objections to Indian projects on western rivers create a situation where major desilting/storage projects are politically and technically challenging, effectively making large-scale silt clearance difficult or "forbidden" in practice


India suspended sharing crucial hydrological data with Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in April 2025 due to rising tensions, impacting Pakistan's flood warnings, irrigation, and water management, though India claims it's only pausing, not ending, the treaty, while Pakistan urges compliance with the 1960 pact despite receiving limited data. This halt means Pakistan lacks real-time flow, snowmelt, and discharge info, increasing vulnerability to floods and drought, and hindering planning, as India now controls more aspects of the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab).

Context of Data Sharing: Pre-2025: India had already reduced data sharing after 2019, only providing flood season data under separate agreements, not the full IWT mechanism.

2025 Suspension: Following an attack in Kashmir, India put the IWT "in abeyance," stopping all routine hydrological data exchange (flow, melt, discharge).
Impact on Pakistan:

Flood Risk: Lack of timely flood warnings makes Pakistan more vulnerable to devastating floods, affecting lives and infrastructure.

Water Management: Hinders planning for irrigation, hydropower, and drinking water, as crucial data on upstream flows is missing.

Drought Concerns: Contributes to water shortages and increased uncertainty in river flows, particularly during dry seasons.

India's Stance & Actions: Condition for Resumption: India links data sharing and treaty compliance to Pakistan ending support for cross-border terrorism.

Increased Control: Suspension allows India greater freedom to build and operate water projects on western rivers.

Pakistan's Response: Calls the suspension illegal and an act of war.
Urges India to resume data sharing through the official IWT channels, even as it acknowledges receiving limited information diplomatically.

Future Outlook: Experts suggest mediation and renegotiation to create a more climate-resilient framework, emphasizing the need for early warning systems and technocratic dialogue to save the treaty.
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