The history of the model agreement for the management of a river of border: for a long time of peace, it is now challenged by India as a weapon of war.
The escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan has brought back the international attention to Treaty of the waters of the adoan agreement that for 65 years has regulated the distribution and use of the water of the Fluvial System of the Indus river in the two countries. But what does the Treaty establish? Why was it originally stipulated? And why is it so crucial, in the geopolitical balance between these two nuclear powers?
The Indo River: lifeblood for two countries
The Indo originates in the mountains of Western Tibet in China, crosses the Indian region of Ladakh, north of Jammu and Kashmir, and then flows through Pakistan, until it leads to the Arabian Sea south of the city of Karachi. The Treaty of the Waters of the ADO was necessary In the aftermath of the midnight of August 14, 1947the date of common birth of India and Pakistan, after the distribution of what had been the colony of British India in two independent states.
When India temporarily blocked the flow of the river to Pakistan in 1948, the country turned to the United Nations asking to intervene for its protection. The UN asked the World Bank to mediate between the two states so that an agreement could be reached on the division of the waters of the ado and its tributaries. Years of negotiations followed, which ended, September 19, 1960with the signature of the Treaty.
Oriental rivers and western rivers
Was granted to India the control of the Talling of the Eastern Ado (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej); At Pakistan the control of western rivers was guaranteedthat is, the main course of the ado, the Jhelum and the Chenab, essential to wet the populous provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Since then, the treaty has guaranteed that both countries were able to meet their water needs, in a masterpiece of diplomacy who made school. The Ado Treaty is considered one of the most successful international agreements in the world for the distribution of cross -border water.
As explained in an article on The Conversation – The work of the World Bank consisted of Depoliticize water and rather promote it a bureaucratic divisionturning off the political dispute around it. The Treaty of the Waters of the Ado survived three wars and countless tensions between India and Pakistan: several times India threatened to terminate it, but until 2025 it had never happened. In guaranteeing water stability, the document was a fundamental tool for the mediation of conflicts. A tool of peace.
What would happen, without
Pakistan is a country poor in raw materials that bases much of its economy on agriculture (corn crops, rice and wheat above all).
From the flows of the waters of the ado from the Indian territory and controlled thanks to the treaty It depends on its ability to produce food, to guarantee drinking water to millions of people and produce hydroelectric energy.
As explained on Another economyPakistan is also one of the countries most affected by climate change, with 33 million inhabitants, one in 7 out of 7, affected by extreme climatic events (such as the catastrophic floods that in 2022 added a third of its territory). According to WWF Pakistan, in the last two centuries the Delta dell’ADO, an area characterized by dedications of swamps and mangrove forests, has reduced its 92% flow, and now of 2050 another 2.79% will be lost for the intrusion into the marine water delta.
Due to climate change, the water that falls on the fields of Pakistan in the form of a rain has reduced, and the droughts have become more recurrent. A definitive suspension of the ADO Treaty would translate in minors collected, food insecurity, economic instability for the country. With the suspension of the treaty, India could in fact change the way in which it manages the infrastructures that control the flow of existing waters on western rivers (those controlled by Pakistan).
The water wars
In recent years, India has requested changes to the treaty by claiming the right to build hydroelectric plants on western rivers. Aim that Pakistan has hindered, accusing the neighboring country of violating the terms of the agreement.
Following the recent terrorist attack on 22 April 2025 in Pahalgam, in the Indian region of Kashmir, India made the historical decision to temporarily suspend the Treaty, accusing the Pakistan of complicity with the terrorist group of the resistance front, head of the attack. Pakistan, denying all responsibility in the incident, defined the decision of India a “form of terrorism of water” and a “violation of international law.
The story shows how, in a world characterized by increasingly small water resourcesthe management (shared and responsible or, in other cases, simply “strategic”) of the water has become a tool for political stability as well as of social justice. What happens on the border between India and Pakistan also occurs in other parts of the world. The use of water as a strategic control of control is for example central to the Middle East.
