Sixty Years of the Indus Waters Treaty in the Era of Climate Change: A Look Ahead in Hydro-diplomacy and Treaty Law

Abstract

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has now attained the milestone of 60 years (1960– 2020). It was registered by India with the United Nations on 16 January 1962. It has become a global role model of an international legal mechanism for shared transboundary water resources. It has withstood all the strains, conflicts and lows in the bilateral relations between the riparian states of India and Pakistan. The current trends of global climate change in the Anthropocene epoch have exacerbated the risk of conflict over the shared international freshwater resources under the IWT. The receding glaciers, scanty snowfall, changing land system patterns, increasing demands for water to meet irrigation, industrial and domestic water demands, all have cumulatively made an impact on water availability in the Indus Basin. As the climatic changes induce decline in water flows in the Indus Basin rivers, this study seeks to analyze the actual working of the IWT, efficacy of the in-built conflict resolution mechanism and the sheer tenacity to stay course especially on the part of the large upper riparian country, India. It, in turn, has become an exemplar in a treaty-based mechanism as well as in making hydro-diplomacy work for governance of the transboundary water resources in the era of climate change.