Assessing the Indus Waters Treaty from a comparative perspective

ABSTRACT

The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty dividing the rivers of the Indus system between India and Pakistan has continued to  function through two wars and numerous political tensions. Nevertheless, given mounting pressures on the Indus’ waters due to population growth, climate change and mismanagement, many call for  abandonment or renegotiation of the treaty. This article situates these criticisms within the quantitative literature analyzing river treaties to demonstrate that the same critiques are applicable to many treaties. Comparative analysis also reveals that while some of the treaty’s weaknesses can be addressed, important structural obstacles render certain of its deficiencies difficult to correct.

KEYWORDS:

• River treaties
• transboundary rivers
• cooperation over transboundary rivers

Notes

1. Examples of these databases include the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, which contains 688 treaties from 1820 to 2007. Advances in data technology have enabled construction of event-based databases to track news events concerning river disputes and how they are resolved. Examples of these databases include the Issue Correlates of War and the International Water Events Database.