Dar writes to UN Security Council demanding action on India’s attempts to alter river flow

Pakistan on Friday asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take note of India’s attempts to change the flow of rivers governed by the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar warned in a letter that two Indian infrastructure projects on the Chenab river system aim to divert water and could threaten Pakistan’s water, food and economic security.

In April last year, following a deadly attack on tourists in India’s Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region, India unilaterally suspended the IWT after accusing Pakistan of supporting the attackers – an accusation 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.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, in a message on

According to the envoy, the letter concerns “India’s continued illegal actions and violations of the IWT of 1960.” It aims to draw the attention of the Council to developments related to the Chenab River system.

“The letter urgently draws the Security Council’s attention to two illegal Indian infrastructure projects linked to the Chenab River system aimed at water diversion,” he said.

He added that the projects “reveal India’s intention to illegally alter the flow and use of Western rivers governed by the Treaty, turning water into a weapon with dangerous implications for Pakistan’s water, food and economic security as well as regional stability and international peace and security.”

The Pakistani envoy said the UN Security Council had been asked “to take cognizance of this fragile and deteriorating situation and hold India accountable for its egregious violations.”

Read: FM Dar warns that India’s water projects aim to establish ‘hydro-hegemony’

Iftikhar further said he briefed the Security Council President on “the general situation in South Asia” and expressed concerns over India’s “continued non-compliance with its obligations under the UN Security Council resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir conflict”.

A day earlier, Dar addressed the Brussels Conference on “Transboundary water resources: a militarized global commons”warning that India was pursuing a strategy of “hydro-hegemony”, with at least 17 projects, including reservoir and river diversion projects, intended to radically alter the Indus river system.

“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.

Meanwhile, India has launched a concerted campaign to undermine the Brussels seminar, amid growing global scrutiny of New Delhi’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

According to diplomatic sources, the Indian side was disconcerted by Pakistan’s efforts to internationalize the issue of transboundary water governance and denounce the dangers posed by the militarization of shared water resources.

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.

Learn more: 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”.

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.