Dar warns India’s water projects aim to establish ‘hydro-hegemony’ | The Express Tribune

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday warned that India was pursuing what he described as a strategy of “hydro-hegemony”, saying that at least 17 projects, including reservoir and river diversion schemes, were designed to alter the Indus river system drastically.

In April last year, following a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), India unilaterally suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after accusing Pakistan of backing the attackers — a charge Islamabad categorically denied. The treaty has since remained at the centre of renewed tensions between the two neighbours over the sharing of transboundary water resources.

Addressing the Brussels Conference on “Transboundary Water Resources: A Weaponised Global Common”, Dar said India’s actions went beyond rhetoric and posed a challenge to the IWT framework.

“It is important to underscore that our concerns are not merely based on Indian statements,” he said.

“India has followed up its belligerent statements with illegal actions; these include projects to create reservoirs such as Sawalkot, Kirthai, Kwar etc; the expansion of existing structures such as Baglihar and Salal; and, most alarmingly, diversion projects on the Indus, Chenab and Ravi rivers.

“In total, at least 17 such projects that will drastically alter the river system as a whole, giving India the tools for ‘hydro-hegemony’ that it so desires,” he added.

Read: ‘Not a single drop of water will flow to Pakistan’: Indian minister threatens to block water supply

The deputy prime minister said the conference was timely as it brought together experts to discuss climate change, water resource management and the political dimensions of transboundary water governance.

“Shared resources require cooperative management through agreed frameworks; otherwise, competing interests can turn them into sources of conflict and weaponisation, as increasingly seen today,” he said, adding that peaceful coexistence depended on respect for treaties, agreements and multilateral frameworks.

Referring to the Indus Waters Treaty signed between Pakistan and India in 1960, Dar said Pakistan had consistently upheld the principles of the UN Charter and remained committed to resolving disputes through the treaty’s legal framework.

“The treaty envisages the peaceful resolution of disputes within its own framework,” he said, noting that it had survived three major conflicts and several other challenges over the decades.

FM Dar said Pakistan had previously raised concerns over certain Indian actions under the treaty but had always pursued available legal mechanisms.

“We sought settlement through international mechanisms and respected decisions even when they fell short of our expectations,” he said.

Criticising India’s unilateral suspension of the treaty, Dar said abandoning established legal frameworks could not be considered a responsible course of action.

“Responsible states act within established legal frameworks rather than abandoning them,” he said.

“And yet, today, we find ourselves confronted with precisely such a challenge.”

The foreign minister said rivers were not merely waterways but lifelines carrying historical, cultural and economic significance.

“The stated policy of our eastern neighbour to intentionally deprive 240 million people of their rightful access to water represents a catastrophe in the making, of unparalleled magnitude.”

Also Read: FM Dar urges UNSC president to press India to restore Indus Waters Treaty

He stressed that water should never be used as a means of coercion.

“It is a shared resource, a common responsibility, and ultimately a prerequisite for human dignity and sustainable development. The future of transboundary water governance must therefore be anchored in cooperation and respect for international law.”

Dar said the issue should not be viewed solely through the lens of South Asia, arguing that respect for treaties formed the foundation of the international order.

“The sanctity of treaties is the bedrock of the international order,” he said.

Reiterating Pakistan’s position, the foreign minister said the country remained committed to resolving disputes peacefully.

“Pakistan remains committed to resolving all issues through dialogue, diplomacy, and the mechanisms provided under international law,” he said.

“Our position is guided not by confrontation, but by the conviction that lasting solutions can only emerge through cooperation and respect for mutually agreed obligations.”

Linking the issue to climate change, Dar said Pakistan was confronting the water challenge at a time when it ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, despite contributing less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Read More: Dar accuses India of violating IWT as Chenab levels fall

“This is a moment that calls for enhanced international cooperation and collaboration on water-related issues,” he said.

Dar urged participants to draw lessons from the Indus Waters Treaty while examining experiences from other regions.

“Let us reaffirm today that shared waters should unite nations rather than divide them, and that cooperation, not coercion, must remain the guiding principle of transboundary water governance,” he concluded.

The IWT and why it matters

The IWT of 1960 stands as one of the most carefully negotiated and legally robust transboundary water agreements in modern international law. Concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, the treaty was designed to remove water from the volatility of politics and conflict and to anchor it firmly in law, engineering discipline, and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the foundational principle of pacta sunt servanda — that treaties must be honoured in good faith.

Read: Pakistan accuses India of violating Indus Waters Treaty

At the heart of the IWT lies a permanent and unqualified allocation of rivers. Article II vests the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — exclusively in India, while Article III accords Pakistan exclusive rights over the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab. This allocation was the treaty’s foundational bargain.

India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow confines of Article III(2) of the Indus Waters Treaty, read with Annexures D and E, allowing limited, non-consumptive uses such as run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects. These permissions are subject to strict design and operational constraints, including limits on pondage, prohibition of storage for flow regulation, and a ban on engineering features enabling control over water flows to Pakistan.

These safeguards were intended to protect Pakistan as the lower riparian and prevent water from becoming a strategic tool. Pakistan’s objections to projects such as Kishanganga and Ratle stem from concerns over excessive pondage, gated spillways, and drawdown mechanisms, which it says violate treaty provisions and could affect downstream flows, particularly during lean seasons.

The dispute entered a more troubling phase in April 2025, when, following a terrorist incident in Pahalgam, India announced that it was placing the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance”.

Read More: India skips IWT case proceedings at The Hague

Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Stage-II Hydropower Project on the Chenab River, an action that violates the treaty’s provisions governing the western rivers and infringes upon Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.

The unilateral suspension and expedited approval of upstream projects, including the withholding of hydrological data, diversion of river flows, and alteration of natural regimes, constitute deliberate water weaponisation, jeopardising Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower generation, and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law, and Article 51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan has clear legal avenues to respond.

International law expressly prohibits the use of water as a weapon against downstream populations, making strict enforcement of the IWT essential not only for bilateral stability but also for the integrity of global water governance norms.