HISTORY teaches us that wars between India and Pakistan only deepen enmities, exacerbate poverty and destabilize the region.
As tensions rise once again over the Indus Waters Treaty, both nations face a crucial truth: peace is not a luxury but essential for survival.
The immediate spark was the tragic killing of 26 Indian tourists in Kashmir on April 22.
In response, India suspended its participation in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, a rare diplomatic triumph between two nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan, predictably, warned that obstructing water flow would be seen as an “act of war.”
The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, divided the Indus Basin’s six rivers, with India controlling the eastern rivers and Pakistan the western ones.
For 65 years, it has endured because both countries recognize that destabilizing this vital water system would harm millions.
Pakistan’s agriculture heavily depends on the Indus Basin, while India needs regional stability.
Although India lacks the infrastructure to divert significant portions of water from the western rivers, the real danger lies in political escalation.
Suspending the treaty, even symbolically, undermines a long-standing commitment to rules-based diplomacy.
It also invites retaliatory actions from other powers, like China, which controls the Brahmaputra’s headwaters.
A greater challenge looms: climate change.
Melting glaciers, erratic monsoons and shrinking snowpacks are altering the Himalayan watershed.
With rising populations and increasing agricultural demands, water will only grow scarcer in the coming decades.
The treaty, crafted for a different time, must evolve to address these new challenges.
Both countries must modernize the treaty, investing in joint water management technologies and cooperative adaptation strategies.
Enhancing transparency and expediting the resolution of technical disputes are essential steps toward ensuring future stability.
Prime Minister Modi’s assertion that “blood and water cannot flow together” is understandable in the wake of tragedy, but weaponizing water would harm millions of innocent people who depend on the Indus for survival.
Similarly, Pakistan must stop viewing every Indian hydroelectric project as a betrayal and instead focus on improving water efficiency, flood management and agricultural innovation.
The Indus belongs not to the elite but to the farmers, fishermen and pastoralists who depend on it for their livelihoods.
Their futures should not be sacrificed in the name of nationalist agendas.
Weaponizing water is self-destruction, not strength.
Shared resources must be managed with maturity, vision and mutual respect, especially in a world growing more precarious.
Turning rivers into weapons brings only ruin.
—The writer is a political and defence analyst. (writetomahossain@gmail.com)
