Open Access Research Article
CROSS-BORDER RIVER FLOWS: REVISITING THE INDUS WATERS AND GANGA WATER-SHARING TREATIES THROUGH INTERNATIONAL LAW
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Transboundary rivers sit at the
intersection of sovereignty, ecology and diplomacy, and two South Asian
treaties now test that intersection to its limit. India placed the Indus Waters
Treaty 1960 in abeyance after the Pahalgam terrorist attack of 22 April 2025,
and has held that position through 2026 despite adverse arbitral awards it
refuses to recognise. Separately, the India-Bangladesh Ganga Water Sharing
Treaty 1996 reaches the end of its thirty-year term on 12 December 2026,
forcing a renegotiation complicated by a changed government in Dhaka, sustained
pressure from Bihar to revisit the 1996 formula, and a dry-season allocation
still anchored to 1949-1988 flow data. Applying equitable and reasonable
utilisation, the no-significant-harm rule, procedural obligations of
notification and cooperation, and the Vienna Convention's law of treaty
suspension, this paper argues that India's Indus abeyance rests on weaker legal
footing than official statements suggest; that a calibrated countermeasures
framework pending renegotiation is more defensible than an open-ended freeze;
and that the Ganga renewal should replace, not extend, the 1996 formula with an
adaptive, basin-oriented and climate-responsive treaty giving Bihar and West
Bengal a formal domestic voice.
Published Paper
Author Details
Authors: NANDAN RATHI
Registration ID: 1013130 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13130
Year: Sep-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 6
Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Page No.: 478-495
Article Information
CROSS-BORDER RIVER FLOWS: REVISITING THE INDUS WATERS AND GANGA WATER-SHARING TREATIES THROUGH INTERNATIONAL LAW
Authors: NANDAN RATHI
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Volume 3
- Issue 6
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- AbbreviationIJLRA
- ISSN2582-6433
- AccessOpen Access
- LicenseCC 4.0
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