Weaponisation of water: Pak senator on India's hydel project on Chenab river

Islamabad | A Pakistani senator on Monday said that “weaponisation of water” will further "inflame" the already tenuous ties between Pakistan and India.

The remarks by Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sherry Rehman came after a panel under the Ministry of Environment in New Delhi approved a hydel power project on the Chenab River.

The clearance came in the backdrop of India suspending the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack in April this year.

In a post on X, Rehman talked about the green panel's clearance to the 260-megawatt Dulhasti Stage-II hydropower project on Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district.

Calling it a "flagrant violation" of the IWT, she said, “This weaponisation of water is neither sane nor acceptable in a region on the frontlines of climate change and environmental stress. It will inflame tensions in a bilateral relationship already bristling with hostility and distrust.”

India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan a day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, including putting the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in “abeyance.” The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

The Expert Appraisal Committee on hydel projects accorded the approval during its 45th meeting earlier this month, paving the way for floating construction tenders for the run-of-the-river project, estimated to cost over Rs 3,200 crore.

The panel noted that the water of the Chenab basin is shared between India and Pakistan in accordance with provisions of the Indus Water Treaty, 1960, and the project's parameters were planned in accordance with the treaty.

"However, the Indus Water Treaty stands suspended effective from April 23, 2025," the panel noted.

When the Indus Water Treaty was in force, Pakistan had rights over the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers, and India over the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.

With the treaty now in abeyance, India is pushing ahead with several hydroelectric projects in the Indus basin, such as Sawalkote, Ratle, Bursar, Pakal Dul, Kwar, Kiru, and Kirthai I and II.

Dulhasti Stage-II is an extension of the existing 390 MW Dulhasti Stage-I Hydro Electric Project (Dulhasti Power Station), which has been successfully operating since its commissioning in 2007 by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited.