India–Pakistan River Water Sharing: Prospects for Environmental Peacebuilding
Publisher: Water Management in South Asia
Author(s): Dhanasree Jayaram
Date: 2020
India–Pakistan relations have been marred by territorial, ideological and geopolitical tensions since independence. This has affected the potential for water cooperation between the two South Asian nations. Despite signing the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 and paving the way for a functional division of the Indus Basin’s waters, there has been little progress in transforming the treaty into “effective” cooperation. In recent years, India–Pakistan river water-sharing relations have been strained by incidents of cross-border terrorist attacks, especially on the Indian security forces, leading India to threaten with a revision of the IWT. The Indus is, however, Pakistan’s lifeline and a significant population, both in Pakistan and in India, is dependent on the waters of its basin. Moreover, the effects of environmental and climate change are being felt on both sides of the border. In this context, the paper seeks to analyse whether India and Pakistan could work towards effective cooperation (such as integrated basin management and climate change adaptation) and set the platform for “environmental peacebuilding” as water security is emerging as a critical issue in both countries. It traces the history of India–Pakistan water-sharing relations, including the disputes over India’s dams on the basin’s rivers, and explores possible starting points for water cooperation between the two countries. The paper argues that that unless there is (geo)political and territorial stability, environmental and climatic initiatives are either non-starters or with at best perspectives of only short-term success.