Weaponising Water: India’s Brazen Breach of the Indus Waters Treaty

Jan 2, 2026 | Majid Nabi Burfat
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Weaponizing water is tantamount to an act of war— not because of rhetoric, but because water sustains life, food, energy and social stability. This stark reality has returned to the centre of South Asian geopolitics as international legal experts and UN mechanisms openly rebuke India’s rejection of its treaty obligations under the Indus Waters Treaty, warning that unilateral actions on shared rivers risk humanitarian harm and regional destabilisation. Pakistan’s response, far from being impulsive or political posturing, is anchored in international law, historical precedent and the lived vulnerability of a downstream nation whose survival is intertwined with the Indus river system.