Indus Waters Treaty on hold until Pakistan changes stance, India says

India told the UN that the Indus Waters Treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan ends support for terrorism, while highlighting its water initiatives and stressing the need for cooperation on global water security goals.

United Nations: India has reiterated that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will be held in abeyance till “the global epicentre of terror” Pakistan mends its ways.

Pakistan “must uphold the sanctity of human life before talking of upholding the sanctity of treaties”, India’s Permanent Representative P Harish said on Thursday at an event held in the UN to mark World Water Day.

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“India has always been a responsible upper riparian state”, he said. “But responsibility is a two-way street. Pakistan must unconditionally abjure terrorism as an instrument of its state policy”.

Harish was responding to Pakistan’s raising of the IWT as if it were an aggrieved party, impinging on a high-level event commemorating International Water Day, which focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to safe water and sanitation for all.

India signed the IWT “in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship”, but “Pakistan violated this spirit by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India”, he said.

“Tens of thousands of innocent Indians became victims of Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks”, he said.

India put the IWT signed with Pakistan in 1960 in abeyance after the Pahalgam religion-based terrorist attack last year by The Resistance Front, an outfit linked to the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

“Our patience and magnanimity did not change Pakistan’s ways. Eventually, we were compelled to announce that the Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan, the global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for all forms of terrorism”, Harish said.

Moreover, a revision to the territory was needed because of “fundamental changes over the last 65 years” due to technology, demographic and ecological changes, which Islamabad refused to discuss, he said.

“All our efforts to discuss modifications to the Treaty with Pakistan were rebuffed”, he said.

On the theme of the meeting held earlier in the week, because the World Water Day celebrated on March 22 falls on a Sunday this year, he said India placed a high priority to the sustainable development goal of universal access to safe water and sanitation.

“Through the Jal Jeevan Mission, India is implementing one of the world’s largest programmes to provide piped drinking water to rural households”, he said.

Launched in 2019, the Mission has so far brought safe tap water to 81.76 per cent of rural households – a total of 158 million.

“Community participation is a cornerstone of this effort, with village water committees, many of them led by women, playing a key role in planning, monitoring and maintaining local water systems”, Harish said.

“Here at the United Nations, our collective efforts can be most impactful when they focus on areas that unite us, like strengthening national capacities, particularly in developing countries, promoting technological innovation and advancing scientific cooperation”, he added.