Indus Water Treaty: India serves notice to Pakistan, seeks review & modification of 1960 pact; here are the reasons

Citing “fundamental and unforeseen” changes in the circumstances, India has sent a formal notice to Pakistan to seek a review of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), said a report by news agency PTI.

India has also cited the impact of persistent cross-border terrorism as one of the reasons for demanding the reassessment of the pact.

“The notice was issued to Pakistan on August 30 under Article XII(3) of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT),” the report cited government sources as saying.

The notification highlights fundamental and unforeseen changes in circumstances that require a reassessment of obligations under various articles of the treaty, the report said.

New Delhi has raised several issues, including change in population demographics, environmental issues and the need to accelerate the development of clean energy to meet India’s emission targets, it said.

The Indus Water Treaty was signed by India and Pakistan on September 19, 1960 after nine years of negotiations. The World Bank is also a signatory to the pact.

The treaty had set out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two nations on the use of the waters of a number of cross-border rivers.

“The notification was issued in the background of a separate prolonged controversy with respect to the Kishanganga and Ratle hydro projects,” the PTI report quoted a source.

“In this regard, the World Bank has simultaneously activated both the neutral-expert mechanism and the Court of Arbitration on the same set of issues,” the source added.

“The Indian side has, therefore, also called for a reconsideration of the dispute-resolution mechanism under the treaty,” the source said.

Earlier, India had said that the start of the two concurrent processes to resolve the dispute violates the provision of the three-step graded mechanism prescribed in the Indus Water Treaty.

New Delhi has been pushing for the resolution of the dispute through the neutral-expert proceedings.