India lacks capacity to halt Indus waters flow: Experts
Hollow attempts to threaten Pakistan with hydro-extremism
Islamabad: India’s recent provocations aimed at disrupting the flow of Indus River waters to Pakistan have been widely condemned as hollow threats, lacking both engineering capacity and legal justification.
According to Kashmir Media Service, experts say the move is less about water management and more about sustaining a false image of regional supremacy through reckless brinkmanship.
Experts have stated that India has no real capacity to implement its threats. “Its infrastructure is incapable of halting or diverting Pakistan-bound waters from the Indus system, which sustains the livelihoods of over 220 million Pakistanis,” they clarified.
India’s attempt to weaponize water is not just a clear violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), but also a breach of the Vienna Convention, international water law, and human rights norms. Analysts argue this immature approach undermines regional stability and exposes India’s own insecurities, rather than projecting strength.
“India is playing a water war, it has neither the plumbing nor the prudence to win,” said a regional water policy analyst. “With only a handful of dams and limited storage capabilities, New Delhi’s threats collapse under basic engineering scrutiny.”
The recent focus on halting river flow appears to be a political tool for domestic distraction. As India faces growing unrest over rising unemployment, inflation, military missteps like the debacle in Pahalgam, and escalating farmer suicides, water rhetoric is being weaponized to divert public attention. This emotional engineering, critics argue, is emblematic of the ruling BJP’s nationalist playbook.
India’s violations are not limited to rhetoric. Projects like the Kishanganga and Ratle dams have already breached IWT design limits, endangering Pakistan’s agricultural backbone and food security. Furthermore, India’s rejection of arbitration and its insistence on unilaterally appointing Neutral Experts bypassing the World Bank-facilitated Court of Arbitration signals a blatant disregard for established dispute resolution mechanisms.
“India’s refusal to honour legal commitments shows a dangerous trend: it is shattering global trust in international treaties by selectively applying rules only when convenient,” said a Pakistani legal expert on transboundary water treaties.
