Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: An Analysis of the Indus Waters Treaty

Since India and Pakistan’s independence in 1947, both states have fought over the occupied territories of Kashmir to gain control of water supplies, which are strategically valuable. Even in recent times, the countries are facing constant threats from each other over several separate issues. India and Pakistan’s water conflicts are long-standing and relate to Indian infrastructure on the western tributaries. Pakistan is of the view that India is robbing Pakistan’s water supplies and building its water management capacity only as a political maneuver to gain political supremacy by practicing hydro-hegemony. On the other hand, India maintains that it is only constructing infrastructure within the scope of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), and the decreased water flows in Pakistan are due to climate change. Owing to Indian construction works on the western rivers and the Pakistani interest in safeguarding its water supplies, water disputes are routinely referred to the legal mechanism prescribed in the IWT. Recently, the tension over water conflicts between India and Pakistan has been soaring. India has threatened that it will scrap the IWT entirely. In response, Pakistan has stated that such a revocation of a bilaterally agreed treaty would be considered an act of war. This extraordinary intensity in political rigidity between Pakistan and India has a solution enshrined in the legal framework of the IWT to alleviate water disputes. This paper seeks to explore the legal framework of the dispute resolution mechanism under the IWT, and further investigates the weaknesses and strengths of the prescribed mechanism