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Hydro-diplomacy Towards Peace Ecology: The Case of the Indus Water Treaty Between India and Pakistan

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Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene

Part of the book series: The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science ((APESS,volume 30))

Abstract

This chapter presents the institutional characteristics of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT Indus Waters Treaty, 1960: “The Indus Waters Treaty”, signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960: 300–365, 1960) between India and Pakistan in the literature of peace ecology and discusses the complexities of including climate change discourse in the Treaty using the hydro-diplomacy approach in transboundary water management. The introduction to the chapter is followed by the conceptual framework of the study, the historical background of the Indus Water Treaty and the Indus River Basin, and the key aspects of the Indus Water Treaty. The second part includes institutional analysis of the Indus Water Treaty from the peace ecology and climate change perspectives. Towards the end this chapter notes that the challenges of the Indus Water Treaty justify the importance of hydro-diplomacy in the transboundary water management. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the convergence of hydro-diplomacy and peace ecology with climate change supplements for the rich and vulnerable Indus River Basin.

Saima Sabit Ali, M.Sc. Urban Management and Development, MAES Pvt. Limited (Engineering and Planning Consultants) Lahore-54660, Pakistan; Email: ar.saimaali@gmail.com.

Mansee Bal Bhargava, Prof. Dr, entrepreneur, researcher, educator; Consulting Partner at Environmental Design Consultants, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India; Email: mansee.bal.bhargava@gmail.com

This chapter developed from two conference papers and incorporates feedback and suggestions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTs/Volume%20419/volume-419-I-6032-English.pdf.

  2. 2.

    See at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar/brief/fact-sheet-the-indus-waters-treaty-1960-and-the-world-bank.

  3. 3.

    See at: https://www.fao.org/land-water/water/water-management/transboundary-water-management/en/.

  4. 4.

    AQUASTAT Survey (2011): Irrigation in Southern and Eastern Asia in figures.

  5. 5.

    A detailed chronology is available at: https://worldwater.org/chronology.html (Cooley/Gleick 2011).

  6. 6.

    Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas) is a map that was created at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona’s Institute of Environmental Science and Technology by Rubén Escobar (13 June 2017): “What are the socio-environmental conflicts in the world?”; at: https://nonprofit.xarxanet.org/news/what-are-socio-environmental-conflicts-world.

  7. 7.

    See at: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/193124-Pakistan-keen-to-set-up-climate-change-monitoring-system-for-Indus-rivers.

  8. 8.

    See at: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/pragmatic-water-diplomacy-need-of-the-hour-in-south-asia-1.2002488.

  9. 9.

    Speech by UN Deputy Secretary-General on 28 August 2018 in Stockholm.; at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indus-waters-treaty-provided-framework-for-resolving-disputes-on-water-use-un-dy-secretary-general/articleshow/65580647.cms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Urban Management and Development, MAES Pvt. Limited (Engineering and Planning Consultants), Lahore, 54660, Pakistan

    Saima Sabit Ali

  2. Environmental Design Consultants, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    Mansee Bal Bhargava

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  1. Saima Sabit Ali
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  2. Mansee Bal Bhargava
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Correspondence to Saima Sabit Ali .

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  1. Centre for Regional Multidisciplinary Research (CRIM), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    Úrsula Oswald Spring

  2. Peace Research and European Security Studies (AFES-PRESS), Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Hans Günter Brauch

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Ali, S.S., Bhargava, M.B. (2021). Hydro-diplomacy Towards Peace Ecology: The Case of the Indus Water Treaty Between India and Pakistan. In: Oswald Spring, Ú., Brauch, H.G. (eds) Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene . The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62316-6_20

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