Indus Water Treaty: India seeks review, serves formal notice to Pakistan

New Delhi: India has served a formal notice to Pakistan seeking a review of the Indus Water Treaty, arguing that “fundamental and unforeseen” changes in the circumstances require a reassessment of the pact.

The notice was issued to Pakistan on August 30 under Article XII(3) of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), government sources said on Wednesday.

India and Pakistan signed the IWT on September 19, 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory to the pact, which sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two sides on the use of the waters of a number of cross-border rivers.

India’s notification highlights fundamental and unforeseen changes in circumstances that require a reassessment of obligations under various articles of the treaty, the sources said.

Among various concerns, the important ones include a change in population demographics, environmental issues and the need to accelerate the development of clean energy to meet India’s emission targets, they said.

India has also cited the impact of persistent cross-border terrorism as one of the reasons for demanding the review.

“The notification was issued in the background of a separate prolonged controversy with respect to the Kishanganga and Ratle hydro projects,” a source said.

“In this regard, the World Bank has simultaneously activated both the neutral-expert mechanism and the Court of Arbitration on the same set of issues,” the source added.

“The Indian side has, therefore, also called for a reconsideration of the dispute-resolution mechanism under the treaty,” the source said.

India has not cooperated with the Court of Arbitration process to resolve the dispute.

New Delhi considers that the start of the two concurrent processes to resolve the dispute violates the provision of the three-step graded mechanism prescribed in the IWT.

India has been pushing for the resolution of the dispute through the neutral-expert proceedings.

With this notification, India has called on Pakistan to begin government-to-government negotiations in order to review the treaty under the provisions of Article XII(3), the sources said.