After Decades of Agreement, There's Tension Over Water

India's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan has put the region's water security—and its delicate peace—at greater risk. The treaty, which had divided the crucial Indus river system between India and Pakistan since 1960, is now in limbo after India accused Pakistan of supporting a deadly militant attack in April in Kashmir. India, for the first time in the treaty's history, has said it will not abide by the deal, with officials vowing to cut off what they see as "unjustifiable" water flows to Pakistan. The situation:

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies provides helpful background. It explains the Indus River system has six main branches that run westward through India and into Pakistan—borders that were created when India and Pakistan gained their independence from Britain. "Upstream, India asserted its sovereign right to develop the rivers running through its own territory however it saw fit. Downstream Pakistan, suddenly severed from vital water sources originating beyond its borders, feared that India's water demands could deprive it of the Indus's flows." The World Bank played mediator, and the treaty was the result.
• The treaty allowed India to build hydroelectric dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan (three others are allocated to India) but not to store or divert water in a way that would impact Pakistan's supply.

• The water standoff comes as both India and Pakistan face growing water stress due to climate change and shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas. NPR speaks with one expert who says that given India's own outsize water needs, it could use the situation as an opening to divert water or add infrastructure to dam projects that are already in the works without Pakistan's explicit approval.
• NPR reports India says the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan stops promoting what India claims is cross-border terrorism. India's Home Minister Amit Shah is more resolute, saying the Indus Waters Treaty will "never" again be active. "We will take water that was flowing to Pakistan to Rajasthan by constructing a canal. Pakistan will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably," he said two weeks ago in an interview, per Reuters.
• Officials in Pakistan, where the Indus system irrigates 80% of arid land and supports about two-thirds of the population, warn that any move to interrupt or reduce the flow would be considered an act of war, claiming India is "weaponizing water." Its climate change minister said his government "does not recognize that this treaty has been put in abeyance because there's no provision for that."