India sends notice to Pakistan to amend Indus Water Treaty

Subject : International Relations

Section : Neighbour relations

Concept :

India has sent a notice to Pakistan for the modification of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
This was after Pakistan unilaterally tried to change the process of resolving disputes between the two sides.

What is India’s notice about?

The notice, sent through the Commissioner of Indus Water, has invoked Article XII (3) of the treaty.
The provisions of this Treaty may from time to time be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments.
The notice gives Pakistan 90 days to consider entering into intergovernmental negotiations to rectify the material breach of the treaty.
This process would also update the IWT to incorporate the lessons learned over the last 62 years.

Reasons for the notice

The notice appears to be a fallout of a longstanding dispute over two hydroelectric power projects that India is constructing:
- one on the Kishanganga river, a tributary of Jhelum, and
- the other on the Chenab – Ratle Hydro Electric Projects.
In 2015, Pakistan requested the appointment of a Neutral Expert to examine its technical objections to these projects.
In 2016, Pakistan unilaterally retracted its request to appoint a Neutral Expert and proposed that a Court of Arbitration adjudicate on its objections.
On the other hand, in 2016, India requested a Neutral Expert to be appointed as this was an important part of the process which Pakistan was trying to skip.
In March 2022, at Pakistan’s continuing insistence, the World Bank initiated actions on both the Neutral Expert and Court of Arbitration processes.
India not satisfied with the initiation of two concurrent processes.
Such parallel consideration of the same issues is not covered under any provision of the IWT.
India sticked to the graded dispute solving mechanism of IWT.

Indus Water Treaty (IWT)

The Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank.
IWT was signed by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistani President Mohammed Ayub Khan in Karachi on September 19, 1960, after nine years of negotiations between the two countries.
According to this treaty, three rivers: Ravi, Sutlej and Beas were given to India and the other three: Sindh, Jhelum and Chenab were given to Pakistan.

Rights & obligations under this treaty

India is under obligation to let the waters of the western rivers flow, except for certain consumptive use.
The treaty allocates Pakistan approx. 80% of the entire water of the six-river Indus system and reserved for India just remaining 19.48% of the total waters.
India can construct storage facilities on western rivers of up to 3.6-million-acre feet, which it has not done so far.
The IWT permits run of the river projects and require India to provide Pakistan with prior notification, including design information, of any new project.

Dispute redressal mechanism under the Treaty

Article IX of the Treaty is a dispute resolution mechanism – graded at three levels to resolve a difference or a dispute related to projects on the Indus waters.

First level

Either party has to inform the other side if they are planning projects on the Indus river with all the information that is required or asked for by the other party.
This process is done at the level of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), created to implement and manage the goals of the IWT.
If PIC is unable to solve the question in contention, the question becomes difference and goes to second level.

Second level

The second grade is the World Bank appointing a neutral expert to resolve the differences.
If a neutral expert cannot resolve the issue, the difference becomes a dispute and goes to third level.

Third level

At this level, the matter goes to a Court of Arbitration (CoA) whose chair is appointed by the World Bank.

Why is this notice significant?

This notice opens the possibility of India proposing major changes to the treaty and even the idea of altering it completely.
India has not spelled out exactly what it wants to be modified in the Treaty.