Indus Waters Treaty will not remain operational in its present form, says official

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will require a review and renegotiation and will not remain operational in its present form, said a source here on Monday (July 20, 2026). Discussing various aspects of the treaty that came into force in 1960, the senior official said India could not be compelled to stay in the treaty as a set of circumstances had arisen because of Pakistan’s continued support for cross-border terrorism. The official further asserted that India negating IWT would not create a precedent for China’s Brahmaputra dam project as China and India did not have a treaty on the Brahmaputra.

“The Indus Waters Treaty in its present form will not function again. If provisions related to river water sharing have to be reactivated, they have to be done in a different form, not in the present form,” said the official, confirming that the treaty in its present form did not serve Indian interests because of multiple reasons, including climate change reducing the volume of water in the eastern rivers of the Indus system. Briefing a select group of journalists, the official said India had placed the treaty in “abeyance” after the Pahalgam terror attack of April 20, 2025 and ever since there had been no change in Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorists. Over the recent past, Pakistan had intensified its international campaign. He said that because Pakistan supported terrorism a “set of circumstances has come about which has compelled” India to place the treaty in abeyance.

“Pakistan’s support to terrorism can be considered a breach of the treaty. Preamble of the IWT says it was concluded on the grounds of goodwill but Pakistan has hurt them beyond recognition. As a sovereign state I cannot be compelled to stay in a treaty that goes against my interest,” said the source, suggesting that India “theoretically speaking” had the right to terminate the treaty though India had not yet decided to do that.

No storage facility

The official blamed Pakistan for not building any water storage facility over the past 76 years and said almost 50% of the water flow that Pakistan received under the Indus Waters Treaty flowed into the ocean. He dismissed suggestions that India placing IWT in abeyance might give China a precedence in going ahead with disrupting water flow in the Brahmaputra, saying India and China did not have a treaty on the Brahmaputra. However mentioned, “so far as cross-border river management is concerned with China, has not exactly been a fulsome experience.”

India and China have an expert- level mechanism on trans-boundary rivers under which China is required to provide data regarding trans-boundary rivers and India has been concerned about the management of those rivers in recent years. “The two situations are not comparable at all because in one case you have a treaty that has functioned and functioned in the most adverse of circumstances, survived a lot of conflicts, and it is up to a point now where we really have exhausted a lot of the other options that we might have had,” said the official in support of Indian position on the IWT.

Officials further said major electricity projects were currently underway in Sawalkote, Pakal Dul, Ratle, Kiru, Kwar and Dulhasti. These projects were expected to be commissioned progressively over the next five years, generating around 5,300 megawatts of electricity. Out of these, Kiru and Pakal Dul were expected to be commissioned later this year, the officials said.