Indus Water Treaty

Under Indus Water Treaty 1960 (IWT), India
and Pakistan share the waters - Pakistan uses
almost 80 per cent of the water from the basin -
of six rivers that flow through India towards
Pakistan. Of these, India has complete rights
over Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, while Pakistan uses
Chenab, Jhelum and Indus.
Now many experts feel that it is time to relook
the treaty.
Ten days after the dastardly terrorist attack
at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was briefed about the options
India can exercise vis-a-vis the IWT following
which it was declared that India will be
dramatically reconfiguring the usage of its share
of the waters in an as-yet unexplored manner.
Experts advocates a relook at the Indus
Water Treaty from the climate change
perspective and maintaining ecological flow -
points which are not part of the original
agreement. The treaty talks of distribution of
water only between India and Pakistan, but
nothing about maintaining environmental
flows. Stating the direct impact of climate
change on water, the intergovernmental panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) has already warned
in its report that changes in precipitation in a
warming world will not be uniform. The
intensified hydrological cycles will see fewer
rainy days, but more intense rainfall on those
days. With such extreme climatic events
predicted to occur in greater frequency, it makes
more sense to take a holistic look at the entire
basin.