As soon as Asia's second-largest, the Indus Delta has shrunk drastically on account of upstream diversions. The annual freshwater movement to the delta has plummeted from 150–180 million acre-feet (MAF) to usually lower than 10 MAF. Mangrove protection has decreased to barely a fifth of its historic extent, whereas seawater intrusion poisons croplands and groundwater as much as 80 km inland.
With India signalling unilateral disengagement from the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after the current army battle with Pakistan, tensions between the 2 neighbours have resurfaced round one in every of South Asia's most necessary but ecologically compromised river techniques.
Whereas Pakistan has vowed to uphold the treaty, the current pressure underscores a bigger actuality: each international locations have paid a profound ecological value for treating rivers as commodities quite than dwelling ecosystems.
The 1960 treaty, brokered by World Financial institution, divided the Indus basin between India and Pakistan, granting the japanese rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India and the western ones (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan.
Hailed as a mannequin of water diplomacy, the IWT not solely partitioned rivers however institutionalised a mindset of hydraulic engineering at the price of environmental sustainability. As each international locations now grapple with local weather change and water stress, the failings of that strategy have grow to be unignorable.Lengthy earlier than the treaty, the Indus — or Sindhu — formed civilisations for over 4,500 years. Often called Sengge Chu in Tibet, Abaseen in Pashto, and Shendu in Chinese language chronicles, it nourished the traditional cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, supported empires from the Mauryas to the Mughals, and impressed Vedic hymns, Sufi poetry and pilgrimages. Alexander the Nice in contrast it to the Nile. Persia's Darius I commissioned Scylax to navigate it within the sixth century BCE. Arab conquests below Muhammad bin Qasim relied on controlling the decrease Indus. Mughal emperors recorded its richness, and British colonialists mapped its potential.
The Rig Veda hymns praised: “Sindhu in would possibly surpasses all of the streams that movement…”
Close to Rohri, the river nurtures non secular islands just like the shrine of Khwaja Khizr, guardian of waters, and Sadhu Bela temple, based in 1823. Legends abound: of dolphins circling the island in sacred procession; of Palla fish blushing purple after they attain Khwaja Khizr.
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai's Shah Jo Risalo makes use of the river as metaphor and mirror — for longing, non secular quest, and separation.
Regardless of this stature, fashionable nation-states subdued the Indus. Pakistan, with World Financial institution assist post-IWT, constructed dams (Tarbela, Mangla), canals, and barrages (Guddu, Sukkur, Kotri). India pursued comparable tasks. Engineering success got here with ecological collapse.
- Freshwater movement decline: from 150–180 MAF to below 10 MAF.
- Silt hunger: 90% trapped behind dams.
- Mangrove decline: from 600,000 ha to 100,000–130,000.
- Fishery collapse: Marine habitats broken.
- Sea intrusion: Salinity 80 km inland, displacing communities.
Farmers now depend on chemical fertilisers. Poor drainage and inadequate flushing trigger waterlogging and salinisation.
Signed on September 19, 1960, the IWT gave India management over japanese rivers and offered Pakistan funding for alternative infrastructure via Indus Basin Growth Fund. The Financial institution facilitated $900 million in funding, sparking dam development in each international locations.
Since then, the IWT has enabled continued lending: India obtained $130–140 billion and Pakistan $85–95 billion in Financial institution commitments by 2024. However the treaty considered rivers as pipelines, not ecosystems. It lacked provision for environmental flows, delta rejuvenation, or groundwater sustainability.
Plans are afoot to divert extra Indus water to Cholistan — a desert in Punjab, Pakistan — for company farming by way of six canals.
This mirrors previous errors. Water diversion will deprive downstream Sindh and the delta. Irrigation in arid zones dangers salinisation and water loss. Indigenous pastoral communities face displacement.
The traditional Hakra (Sarasvati) River as soon as flowed via Cholistan however vanished. If nature deserted the desert, can engineered canals really maintain it?
With local weather change, the treaty faces new challenges. Neither IWT nor its mechanisms anticipated melting glaciers, erratic monsoons or groundwater decline. Himalayan glacial soften now spikes flows unpredictably. Floods and droughts grow to be extra frequent. Each international locations nonetheless observe outdated governance fashions.
Groundwater is collapsing. Each are among the many world's prime extractors, and Indus Basin aquifers are depleting quick. The Ravi, as soon as flowing via Lahore, is now a poisonous drain; Yamuna and Ganga face comparable crises.
Poor coordination and dam operations worsen floods, as seen in 2010 and 2022 in Pakistan.
By means of vanishing deltas, displaced farmers, and dying fish, the Sindhu nonetheless roars — first heard in Vedic chants, echoed in Sindhi and Punjabi poetry, now resonating in climate-stressed communities.
To revive it, each international locations should transcend technocratic division. A reimagined treaty should:
- Prioritise ecological flows and delta safety
- Set up joint climate-resilient basin governance
- Incorporate community-led water stewardship
- Recognise rivers as dwelling techniques, not state-owned belongings
As a result of a river doesn't simply carry water. It carries reminiscence, identification, and survival.
If India and Pakistan are to search out frequent floor, let or not it's the river that when sustained each. Let the Sindhu movement not simply via channels of regulation and finance, however via shared ecological knowledge and cultural reverence. Solely then can we unchain the Indus.
(The writer is a Karachi-based local weather and sustainability professional and founding father of Clifton City Forest . Views are private)
