66 years of the Indus Waters Treaty: How India and Pakistan settled a bitter river dispute
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "66 years of the Indus Waters Treaty: How India and Pakistan settled a bitter river dispute")
Indus Waters Treaty Photograph: (ANI)
Signed on September 19, 1960, the World Bank-brokered Indus Waters Treaty divided six regional rivers between India and Pakistan until India placed the agreement in abeyance following a 2025 terror attack.
On this day in 1960, India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), ending nearly nine years of negotiations over the sharing of the Indus river system.
The treaty was signed in Karachi by then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's President Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, with the World Bank and its then-president, Eugene Black, playing a key mediating role.
The agreement was the outcome of negotiations that began in 1952, after the partition of British India in 1947 left the Indus Basin river system divided between the two countries.
How the Indus Waters Treaty came about
The Indus river system supports millions of people across the region and became a major point of contention between India and Pakistan after Partition.
According to the World Bank, Eugene Black approached the leaders of both countries and offered mediation and other services to help resolve the dispute.
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The inaugural meetings were held in Washington on May 6, 1952. Negotiations continued over the following eight years, covering various aspects of the sharing and management of the river system.
The talks eventually resulted in the signing of the treaty on September 19, 1960.
Former US President Dwight Eisenhower hailed the agreement as "one bright spot... in a very depressing world picture."
What does the Indus Waters Treaty say?
The treaty divided the six major rivers of the Indus river system between India and Pakistan.
The three eastern rivers, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, were allocated for India's unrestricted use, while the three western rivers, Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, were allocated to Pakistan, subject to certain provisions under the treaty.
The Indus is the westernmost river system in the Indian subcontinent. Its major tributaries include the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Satluj, according to the Central Water Commission's Indus Basin Organisation.
The World Bank is a co-signatory to the treaty and has specific responsibilities under the framework.
India puts treaty in abeyance
The decades-old agreement came under renewed focus in 2025 after a terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in April that year killed 26 people.
Following the attack, India announced that it was putting the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.
The move brought the treaty, which had long been regarded as one of the key frameworks governing water relations between India and Pakistan, back into the spotlight.
