1. Workshop on Governing Critical Uncertainties:
Climate Change and Decision-Making in
Transboundary River Basins
21‐ 23 January 2013, Chiang Mai, Thailand
www.earthsystemgovernance.org

2. New Challenges of Transboundary Water Conflicts and
Climate Change for Governance of Indus River Basin

3. Introduction
• Indus is a river system that sustains 200 million
people in India and Pakistan
• Both India and Pakistan have extensively
dammed the Indus River
• With competing demands of water both sides,
the conflicts sustain since 1947, year of partition
• Indus Water Treaty (IWT) agreed in 1960
• Transboundary water conflicts on climax now
• Climate change is supposed to add to conflicts
• New challenges to governance and institutions
• Need to reform the international legislation and
governance to cope with uncertainties

4. Indus River Basin System
• Sanskrit – Sindhu
• Old Persian – Hindu
• Ancient Greek - Ἰ νδός
• Old Iranian - Indós
• Urdu - Daryā-e Sindh
• Hindi - Sindhu Nadī
• Sindhi - Sindhu
• Punjabi - Sindh
• Gujarati - Sindhu
• Tibetan - Sênggê Zangbo (Lion River)
• Pashto - Abāsin (Father of Rivers)
• Turkish – Nilab
• Arabic - Naḥ ar al-Sind
• Persian - Rūd-e Sind
• Latin – Indus

5. Indus River Basin System
Length: 3,200 km (2,000 mi)
Basin: 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 mi2)
Discharge: 6,600 m3/s (230,000 ft3/s)
Location Coordinates: India and
Pakistan ~32046'N and 74057'E
Population: 175 million (72% in
Pakistan; 28% in India)
Rainfall: 1000-1400 mm
Temperature: 80oC (Winter) - 48oC
(Summer)
Economic Factor: Agricultural
production
Area: 450,000 square miles
Top uses of water: Irrigation, water
supply, hydropower generation Left
Tributaries: Zanskar River, Chenab
River, Sutlej River, Sohan River
Right Tributaries: Shyok River, Gilgit
River, Kabul River, Kurram

6. Indus River Basin System
• 21st largest river in the world in terms of annual flow
• 60% of Indus basin lies in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (POK), 10% in Tibet, 25% in India and India-
Administered Kashmir, and 7% in Afghanistan
• Indus system is largely fed by the snows and glaciers of
the Himalayas, Karakoram and the Hindu Kush ranges
• 80% of water for Upper Indus Rivers comes from Himalayan
glaciers
• 25 amphibian species and 147 fish species of which 22 are
endemic
• Indus is the most important supplier of water resources to
the Punjab and Sindh plains

9. Competing Water Demands
& Transboundary Conflicts
• Water disputes between Punjab and Sind provinces during
British India
• Conflict in the basin started in 1947 when India stopped water
flowing through its canals to Pakistan
• Dispute over Salal dam was settled in 1978
• Controversy on the Wullar Barrage/ Tulbul Navigation project
and Kishanganga hydroelectric dams remains unsettled.
• Baglihar dam created severe conflicts, but the issue was
settled by recourse to Neutral Expert
• Recent Conflicts created around: 57-metre high Nimoo-Bazgo
dam in Leh (India); 42-metre high Chuttak dam on Suru river
(India-Kashmir); Tulbul Navigation Project in India-Kashmir

10. Some Major Dams on India’s Part of Indus River Basin

11. Transboundary Governance System
• Inter-Dominion Accord of May 4, 1948: required India to
release sufficient waters to Pakistani regions
• Pakistan wanted to take the matter to the International Court
of Justice but India refused
• In 1951, David E. Lilienthal, former chairman of Tennessee
Valley Authority, visited India and Pakistan.
• Lilienthal wrote an article with suggestions that Indus Basin
be treated, exploited, and developed as a single unit

12. Transboundary Governance System
• World Bank mediated from 1952 onwards, and Indus Waters
Treaty (IWT) was signed in September 1960
• IWT conferred rights over 3 western rivers of Indus river
system (Jhelum, Chenab and Indus) to Pakistan, and over 3
eastern rivers (Sutlej, Ravi and Beas) to India

13. Chronology of Indus Water Treaty
(adapted from Jutla and Dewayne, 2009)
Transboundary Governance System