- Pakistan, India tied to warn of extraordinary discharges of water.
- Treaty provisions Dams’ operations to prevent damage to other parties.
- India responsible for Failure to share information about the Sutlej River.
Lahore: Pakistan has struggled with a serious and unprecedented flooding situation, reinforced by the sudden release of water from Indian dams.
The crisis is worsened by India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), an agreement that has controlled shared water resources for over six decades.
When Pakistan struggles with unprecedented floods, concerns have been achieved in relation to India’s rejection of complying with IWT, with accusations that surfaces that New Delhi has not maintained its critical tasks with regard to timely flood warnings. This comes at a time when the country’s rivers Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej experience dangerously high flood levels.
According to the Treaty of Indus Waters in 1960, both India and Pakistan are bound by specific provisions designed to prevent material damage from water flows.
Article IV-8 is explicitly called, “Each party agrees to communicate to the other party, as far in advance as practicable, all information it may have with regard to such extraordinary emissions of water from reservoirs and flood streams that may affect the other party.”
In addition, Article IV-9 outlines each party’s intention “to operate its storage statements, barriers and irrigation channels in such a way […] In terms of avoiding, as far as possible, material damage to the other party. “
However, India has not consistently met these obligations. For example, while a warning of a potential flood in the Tawi side elves of the Chenab River was reportedly transferred to Pakistan on Sunday (August 24, 2025), there was a critical missing part of updated information about the Sutlej River.
When the Tawi alarm was released, Sutlej had already reached high flood levels, which exceeded 122,000 CUSSCS, leaving lower Riparian Syd Punjab with insufficient time to prepare for the undulating waters.
This alleged lapse in information sharing is especially alarmingly considering India’s unilateral decision on April 23, 2025 to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty. Shortly after holding IWT in Abeyance, India intentionally reduced outflow from water containers built on the Chenab River to minimum levels, which resulted in a serious water shortage in the midst of high demand for irrigation. In response, Pakistan had to release water from the Mangla Dam to accommodate the deficit in the Chenab water.
As previously reported, the unilateral suspension of IWT of India has stopped formal data exchange and collaborative mechanisms, leaving Pakistan with less pre -announcement to control its rivers and reduce the impact of flooding.
The collapse of heavy monsoon rain and these unannounced or delayed water releases from Indian dams aggravate the country’s water crisis, threaten its agricultural sector, economic stability and water safety and potentially lead to widespread food safety and public turmoil.
The latest report from the flood forecasting department, which was issued at 1 p.m. 21 Wednesday, August 27, paints a gloomy picture of the situation. The Ravi and Sutlej rivers Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej experience dangerously high flood levels. The Chenab River is at an extremely high level of flood on all four of its surveillance sites with a massive outflow of 1,077,951 CUSERCs registered on Qadirabad. Similarly, the Sutlej River is in an exceptionally high flood at Ganda Singh Wala, while the Ravi River is at a high flood at Shahdara.
This devastating flood comes on the heels of India’s announcement in April this year to hold IWT in Abeyance. This unprecedented feature has stopped the formal division of crucial hydrological data and cooperative mechanisms in a meaningful way. Without this critical information, Pakistan is left with a less warning of controlling water flows and mitigation flooding risks that its officials have long invoked.
An official said that the formal flood alarm, shared by India in the past few days, was not useful for taking precautionary measures well in time. This was partly due to the fact that, unlike previous practice, India did not shared data on releases from all its water reservoirs on Eastern rivers.
In such a situation where outflows from Upper Riparian are uncertain, the river flow highlights downstream the uncertain water management, which emphasizes the need for precise coordination and monitoring to reduce potential flood risks and ensure optimal water utilization.
While the Indus river at the Tarbela Dam, the Jhelum river at the Mangla -Dam and the Kabul River at Nowshera shows moderate and stable currents, other key leaders, especially derive from or pass through India, are under enormous pressure.
The Chenab River at Marala has high influx of 769,500 CUSSCS with almost equal outflows. Sped downstream also controls high currents, including chashma barrier (influx of 305,700 CUSERCs) and Taunsa barrier (influx of 345,200 CUSSCS).
The ongoing floods threaten to seriously affect the country’s already fighting agricultural sector, which is the backbone of its economy. The crisis is a significant risk to the nation’s economic stability and food security and can lead to public turmoil when the humanitarian situation deteriorates. With heavy monsoon rain, the IWT’s data sharing mechanism continues and the suspension of IWT’s data sharing mechanism faces a serious water crisis.
Originally published in the news
