India Is Using Water as Weapon: Pakistan

Pakistan has claimed that India is using Water as Weapon

Pakistan had claimed that India has used water as a weapon against them. There have been reports of villages being destroyed after heavy flows of water in Chenab river that flows in Northern India in the Kashmir region and Pakistan in the Punjab region. 

India`s effort to use water as a weapon seems to be a tactic for the country to leave the water treaty, known as the Indus Water Treaty made in 1960 by the two nations. 

According to the DW Documentary, “Though India used the situation in Kashmir as an opportunity to exit the 65-year-old treaty, it also cited “fundamental changes,” “population dynamics,” and the “need to accelerate the development of clean energy” as further justification.” 

In May, there was a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after India launched strikes to Pakistan but even after that ceasefire by the U.S. President Donald Trump, India has still suspended the treaty. 

According to NPR, “India’s Home Minister Amit Shah vowed that India will ‘never’ restore the Indus Waters Treaty, telling an Indian newspaper, ‘Pakistan will be starved of water that it has been getting unjustifiably.’”

These actions have grave consequences as farmers in Pakistan have been affected by the mass flooding. In Pakistan`s Punjab, their federal minister has said that this is one of the worst examples of water aggression from India that puts lives, livelihoods and property at risk. 

Moreover, along with the farmers being affected, Pakistan`s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister had said that this will threaten the stability of the Indian Subcontinent. 

India has responded to the accusations of “weaponizing water” against Pakistan claiming that these allegations are false and that due to the weather in the Himalayan regions, both nations are vulnerable to intense precipitation and that these allegations are unwarranted. 

In addition, the High Commission of India, Islamabad Pakistan said, “the propaganda in sections of the Pakistan media that India has caused floods in Pakistan is totally baseless, devoid of any truth and mischievous.” 

This water crisis has been going on since May and India controls Pakistan`s water supply since most of the water sources are located within India. Even though the flow of water will not stop, the timing of the flow could be impacted such as releasing more water into Pakistan and then stopping the flow. 

These efforts are also a part of India`s plan to flood Pakistan and during the monsoon season in September, Pakistan had faced more casualties than India. 

“Pakistani authorities say that since late June, when the monsoon season began, at least 884 people have died nationally, more than 220 of them in Punjab,” Al Jazeera reported. “On the Indian side, the casualty count has crossed 100, with more than 30 dead in Indian Punjab”

In 2019, China has begun construction of a dam in Pakistan called the Mohmand Damn which is supposed to be finished in 2026, but in May, they claimed to have sped up construction of the dam after India threatened to cut supplies. 

Pakistan has had a water crisis before the Islamic country was founded as most of the region is dry. They are also one of the most water-stressed countries in the world and had one of the driest winters last year. 

After India had suspended the Indus Water Treaty, the Afghan Taliban is now preparing to build dams along the Kunar River after the suspension also affected flows into Afghanistan from Pakistan`s border areas such as Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Chitral. 

This is the Taliban`s effort to increase crop production in the northern areas of Afghanistan while reducing flow to Pakistan`s Khyber Pakhtunkwa territory. 

Relations between Indian and Pakistan has grown more hostile after the attack on Pahalgam, a resort town on the Indian side of Kashmir by Pakistani terrorists leading to India to strike Pakistan. After the four day conflict in May of this year where jets and drones were being used killing dozens of people, they signed a ceasefire with the U.S.