India has announced that it will stop its water from flowing over international borders.
“Now, India’s water will flow for India’s benefit, it will be conserved for India’s benefit, and it will be used for India’s progress”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.
While he did not mention Pakistan specifically, Modi’s comments come about two weeks after India suspended a 65-year-old water sharing treaty with its neighbour.
Relations between India and Pakistan have declined sharply following a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month. India accuses Pakistan of backing cross-border terrorism – a charge Islamabad flatly denies.
On Tuesday night, India said it had launched missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan’s military said eight people had been killed.
India said three civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling on its side of the defacto border.
Several rivers flow from India into Pakistan, providing vital water supplies to about 80% of farms there. Pakistani leaders previously warned that any attempt to stop the flow of water “will be considered as an act of war”.
The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which governs the water sharing of six rivers in the Indus basin between India and Pakistan, survived two wars between the nuclear rivals and was seen as an example of trans-boundary water management.
Modi’s suspension of the treaty was one of several steps he took against Pakistan after the attack, which killed 26 civilians.
The PM did not elaborate on how India plans to use the excess water, and experts say the country needs to build more dams, reservoirs and lakes to store it, which will take time to build.
The escalation prompted the US to repeat its calls for calm.
“We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
