With Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, India alerts Pakistan about Tawi flood threat as goodwill gesture

Amid tense ties with Pakistan, India extended a goodwill gesture to the neighboring country by apprising it about the flood situation in the Tawi River.

The information was given via the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, as the usual Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) channel remains in abeyance.

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Pakistani authorities have issued warnings regarding floods based on the information provided by India, it added.

This was the first instance where New Delhi conveyed the information through its diplomatic mission, rather than using the treaty’s usual channel of communication between the Indus Water Commissioners.

Indus Water Treaty put in abeyance

Following the ‘dastardly’ massacre of Hindu tourists at Pahalgam, India swiftly declared that it will put the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT), brokered by the World Bank, on abeyance.

What is IWT? 

The origins of the IWT date back to the Partition. Indus, which has given India its name, and its five tributaries, have sustained humanity on the subcontinent for millennia. Both India and Pakistan depend on Indus water for agriculture, irrigation, and electricity, but without the Indus system water, Pakistan would face serious existential threats. So, at Partition, the two countries signed an agreement called the Standstill Agreement to allow the flow of water across the border, and when that agreement expired in 1948, they negotiated for nine long ears, mediated by the World Bank, to sign the IWT in September 1960.

The treaty gives India access to the waters of the three eastern rivers: the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, while Pakistan gets the waters of the three western rivers: the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, which account for almost 80 per cent of the shared basin’s water. While India can use the western rivers to generate hydel power and for limited irrigation, it cannot build infrastructure that restricts the flow of water from those rivers into Pakistan, either by storing or diverting their flows.

The treaty came under renewed scrutiny after the 2019 Pulwama attack. Critics argue that the agreement has been too favorable to Pakistan, despite its continued support for terrorism against India.

The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960 after nearly a decade of negotiations facilitated by the World Bank, is regarded as one of the most enduring and successful international water-sharing agreements. Former World Bank President Eugene Black played a key role in initiating the talks. Despite ongoing conflicts and tensions, the treaty has provided a stable framework for irrigation and hydropower development for more than fifty years.

Former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower once called it “a bright spot in a generally bleak global landscape.” Under the treaty, the western rivers—the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab—are allocated to Pakistan, while India receives rights over the eastern rivers—the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. However, each country is allowed limited use of the rivers allocated to the other. India is entitled to 20% of the Indus River System’s waters, with Pakistan receiving the remaining 80%.

Pak PM rattled by suspension of IWT

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday warned India, stating that Pakistan will teach it a lesson it will never forget, if India attempts to stop the flow of water into Pakistan in violation of the Indus Water Treaty.

Pakistani leaders Asim Munir and Shehbaz Sharif had threatened India in August 2025 with nuclear action if it attempted to alter the flow of the Indus River or block water through the Indus water channels to Pakistan.

On August 10, 2025, during a dinner in Tampa, Florida, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir, reportedly had issued a stark warning to India regarding the Indus Waters Treaty. He stated, “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” Additionally, Munir had threatened to destroy any future Indian dams with “ten missiles” and had emphasized that the Indus River is not India’s “family property.”

These remarks drew criticism from India, with the Ministry of External Affairs describing them as “nuclear sabre-rattling” and urging Pakistan to temper its rhetoric.

PM Modi describes the treaty as ‘one sided’

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day, 2025, said that the country is ready to give a befitting reply to the nuclear blackmail issued by Pakistan on several occasions recently. While addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he stated that Pakistan’s nuclear threats will “no longer be tolerated.”

He criticized the water-sharing agreement under the Indus Water Treaty, calling it “unjust” and “one-sided.”

Criticizing the Indus Water Treaty, PM Modi had said, “The people of our country have clearly understood how unjust and one-sided the Indus agreement is. The waters of rivers originating in India have been irrigating the fields of our enemies, while the farmers and land of my own country remain thirsty.”

He had added, “This is an agreement that has caused unimaginable damage to the farmers of my country for the last seven decades. Now, the rights over the water belong only to the farmers of India…”

He had stated, “Bharat ne yeh tay kar liya hai ki khoon aur paani ek saath nahi bahega…”