Dar writes to UN Security Council calling for action on India’s attempts to alter river flows

Pakistan on Friday asked the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take note of India’s attempts to alter the flow of rivers governed by the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar warning in a letter that two Indian infrastructure projects in the Chenab River system aim to divert water and could threaten Pakistan’s water, food and economic security.

In April last year, following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), India unilaterally suspended the IWT after accusing Pakistan of backing the attackers, a charge Islamabad categorically denied. Since then, the treaty has remained at the center of renewed tensions between the two neighbors over the sharing of cross-border water resources.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, in a post on

According to the envoy, the letter refers to “India’s continued illegal actions and violations of the IWT 1960.” It seeks to draw the Council’s attention to developments relating to the Chenab River system.

“The letter draws the urgent attention of the Security Council to two illegal Indian infrastructure projects linked to the Chenab River system aimed at diverting water,” he said.

It added that the projects “reveal India’s intention to illegally alter the flow and use of Western rivers governed by the Treaty, turning water into a weapon with dangerous implications for Pakistan’s water, food and economic security, as well as regional stability and international peace and security.”

The Pakistani envoy said the UN Security Council had been urged to “take cognizance of this fragile and deteriorating situation and hold India accountable for its brazen violations.”

Read: Minister Dar warns that India’s water projects aim to establish ‘hydrohegemony’

Iftikhar further said he briefed the Security Council president on “the overall situation in South Asia” and expressed concern over “India’s continued failure to fulfill its obligations under the UN Security Council resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

A day earlier, Dar addressed the Brussels Conference on “Transboundary water resources: an armed global common good”warning that India was pursuing a strategy of “hydrohegemony”, with at least 17 projects, including reservoir and river diversion systems, aimed at drastically altering the Indus River system.

“It is a shared resource, a common responsibility and ultimately a prerequisite for human dignity and sustainable development. Therefore, the future of transboundary water governance must be anchored in cooperation and respect for international law,” Dar said.

Meanwhile, India has launched a concerted campaign to undermine the seminar in Brussels amid growing global scrutiny of New Delhi’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

According to diplomatic sources, the Indian side has been nervous about Pakistan’s efforts to internationalize the issue of transboundary water governance and expose the dangers posed by weaponizing shared water resources.

The IWT and why it is important

The 1960 IWT stands as one of the most carefully negotiated and legally sound transboundary water agreements in modern international law. The treaty, concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, was designed to remove the water from the volatility of politics and conflict and anchor it firmly in law, engineering discipline and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the fundamental principle of pacta sunt servanda: that treaties must be respected in good faith.

Read more: Pakistan accuses India of violating the Indus Waters Treaty

At the heart of the IWT is a permanent and unconditional allocation of rivers. Article II grants the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) exclusively to India, while Article III grants Pakistan exclusive rights over the western rivers: Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. This assignment was the founding agreement of the treaty.

India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow limits of Article III(2) of the Indus Waters Treaty, read together with Annexes D and E, which allows limited, non-consumptive uses such as run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects. These permits are subject to strict design and operational restrictions, including watertight limits, prohibition of storage to regulate flow, and prohibition of engineering elements that control water flows into Pakistan.

These safeguards were aimed at protecting Pakistan as a lower riparian and preventing water from becoming a strategic tool. Pakistan’s objections to projects such as Kishanganga and Ratle arise from concerns about excessive ponding, closed spillways and drawdown mechanisms, which it claims violate treaty provisions and could affect downstream flows, particularly during lean seasons.

The dispute entered a more worrying phase in April 2025, when, following a terrorist incident in Pahalgam, India announced that it would leave the Indus Waters Treaty “on hold”.

Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Stage II Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab River, a move that violates treaty provisions governing western rivers and infringes on Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.

The unilateral suspension and accelerated approval of upstream projects, including withholding hydrological data, diverting river flows and altering natural regimes, constitutes a deliberate weaponization of water, endangering Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower generation and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Pakistan has clear legal avenues to respond.

International law expressly prohibits the use of water as a weapon against downstream populations, making strict implementation of the IWT essential not only for bilateral stability but also for the integrity of global water governance norms.