Dar warns Indian water projects aim to establish ‘hydro-hegemony’

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar warned Thursday that India was pursuing what he described as a strategy of “hydro-hegemony,” saying at least 17 projects, including reservoir and river diversion projects, were designed to radically alter the Indus river system.

In April last year, following a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region, India unilaterally suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after accusing Pakistan of supporting the attackers – a charge Islamabad categorically denied. The treaty has since remained at the center of new tensions between the two neighbors over the sharing of cross-border water resources.

Addressing the Brussels Conference on “Transboundary water resources: a militarized global commons”Dar said India’s actions went beyond rhetoric and posed a challenge to the IWT framework.

“It is important to emphasize that our concerns are not based solely on Indian statements,” he said.

“India has followed its belligerent statements with illegal actions; these include projects to create reservoirs such as Sawalkot, Kirthai, Kwar, etc.; expansion of existing structures such as Baglihar and Salal; and, more alarmingly, diversion projects on the Indus, Chenab and Ravi rivers.

“In total, at least 17 such projects will radically change the entire river system, giving India the tools of ‘hydro-hegemony’ that it so desires,” he added.

Read: “Not a single drop of water will flow to Pakistan”: Indian minister threatens to block water supply

The Deputy Prime Minister said the conference was timely as it brought together experts to discuss climate change, water resources management and the political dimensions of transboundary water governance.

“Shared resources require cooperative management through agreed frameworks; otherwise, competing interests can turn them into sources of conflict and militarization, as increasingly seen today,” he said, adding that peaceful coexistence depends on respect for treaties, agreements and multilateral frameworks.

Referring to the Indus Waters Treaty signed between Pakistan and India in 1960, Dar said Pakistan had always respected the principles of the United Nations Charter and remained committed to resolving disputes through the legal framework of the treaty.

“The treaty envisages the peaceful resolution of disputes within its own framework,” he said, noting that it had survived three major conflicts and several other challenges over the decades.

FM Dar said Pakistan had previously raised concerns over certain Indian actions under the treaty, but had always used available legal mechanisms.

“We sought a settlement through international mechanisms and respected decisions even when they did not meet our expectations,” he said.

Criticizing India’s unilateral suspension of the treaty, Dar said abandoning established legal frameworks cannot be considered a responsible course of action.

“Responsible states act within established legal frameworks rather than abandoning them,” he said.

“And yet today we find ourselves faced with just such a challenge.”

The foreign minister said rivers are not just waterways but also lifelines with historical, cultural and economic significance.

“Our eastern neighbor’s declared policy of intentionally depriving 240 million people of their legitimate access to water represents a catastrophe in the making, on an unprecedented scale.”

Read also: FM Dar urges UN Security Council president to pressure India to reinstate Indus Waters Treaty

He stressed that water should never be used as a means of coercion.

“It is a shared resource, a common responsibility and, ultimately, a prerequisite for human dignity and sustainable development. The future of transboundary water governance must therefore be anchored in cooperation and respect for international law.”

Dar said the issue should not be viewed solely through the prism of South Asia, arguing that respect for treaties forms the foundation of the international order.

“The sanctity of treaties is the foundation of the international order,” he said.

Reiterating Pakistan’s position, the foreign minister said the country remained committed to resolving differences peacefully.

“Pakistan remains committed to resolving all issues through dialogue, diplomacy and mechanisms provided for under international law,” he said.

“Our position is not guided by confrontation, but by the conviction that lasting solutions can only emerge through cooperation and respect for mutually agreed obligations.”

Linking the problem to climate change, Dar said Pakistan was facing the water challenge at a time when it ranked among the most climate-vulnerable countries, despite contributing less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Learn more: Dar accuses India of violating IWT as Chenab levels fall

“This is a moment that calls for enhanced international cooperation and collaboration on water-related issues,” he said.

Dar urged the participants to learn lessons from the Indus Waters Treaty while looking at experiences from other regions.

“Let us reaffirm today that shared waters must unite rather than divide nations, and that cooperation, not coercion, must remain the guiding principle of transboundary water governance,” he concluded.

IWT and why it matters

The 1960 IWT is one of the most carefully negotiated and legally sound transboundary water agreements in modern international law. Concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, the treaty aimed to steer water away from the volatility of politics and conflict and firmly anchor it in law, technical discipline and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the fundamental principle pacta sunt servanda – that treaties must be honored in good faith.

Read: Pakistan accuses India of violating the Indus Waters Treaty

At the heart of inland navigation is a permanent and unreserved allocation of rivers. Article II gives Pakistan exclusive rights to the eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – exclusively to India, while Article III gives Pakistan exclusive rights to the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. This distribution was the founding agreement of the treaty.

India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow confines of Article III(2) of the Indus Waters Treaty, read with Annexes D and E, allowing limited, non-consumptive uses such as run-of-river hydroelectric projects. These authorizations are subject to strict design and operational constraints, including limits on ponds, a ban on storage to regulate flows, and a ban on engineering features to control water flows to Pakistan.

These safeguards were aimed at protecting Pakistan as a lower riparian and preventing water from becoming a strategic tool. Pakistan’s objections to projects such as Kishanganga and Ratle stem from concerns over excessive ponding, gated spillways and drawdown mechanisms, which it says violate treaty provisions and could affect downstream flows, particularly during lean seasons.

The dispute entered a more troubling phase in April 2025, when, following a terrorist incident in Pahalgam, India announced that it was putting the Indus Waters Treaty “on hold”.

Read more: India ignores IWT case proceedings in The Hague

Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Phase II hydropower project on the Chenab River, an action that violates treaty provisions governing the Western Rivers and undermines Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.

The unilateral suspension and fast-track approval of upstream projects, including the withholding of hydrological data, diversion of river flows and modification of natural regimes, constitutes a deliberate weaponization of water, jeopardizing Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower production and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law and Article 51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan has clear legal avenues to respond.

International law expressly prohibits the use of water as a weapon against downstream populations, making strict enforcement of the IWT essential not only for bilateral stability but also for the integrity of global water governance norms.