Crops hit, dams at dead level: Pak water crisis deepens after India's Indus move
Pakistan is facing a severe water crisis, with the agricultural industry looking at deeper impacts, in the aftermath of India suspending the Indus Waters Treaty in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam massacre in which Islamabad-backed terrorists gunned down 26 people, mostly tourists.Pakistan's Indus River System Authority (IRSA) reported discharging 11,180 cusecs of additional water than it received on Wednesday, worsening the water crisis. Furthermore, the water levels at the two major reservoirs in Pakistan - Tarbela on the Indus and Mangla on the Jhelum - have dropped to dead storage, thereby indicating the crisis will prevail.advertisementThe reservoir water reaching its dead storage levels also means that it cannot be drained out by gravity, thus limiting its use for irrigation or drinking. The water crisis is even stronger in the Punjab province, where the kharif season has started. The kharif farming has witnessed a dip of more than 20 per cent owing to receiving 1.14 lakh cusecs of water as opposed to 1.43 lakh cusecs a day last year.
The production of kharif crops - cotton and maize - has declined by over 30 per cent and 15 per cent in Pakistan, respectively. The production of wheat - a rabi crop - has also dropped by around 9 per cent owing to the water shortage in the country.With the agricultural industry, especially the kharif outputs impacted, its overall share in Pakistan's GDP dipped to 23.54 per cent in fiscal 2025 from 24.03 per cent the previous financial year.advertisementThe situation is expected to deteriorate in the upcoming weeks, especially as India undertakes regular desilting and flushing its dams in Jammu and Kashmir to enhance its own storage capacity. Additionally, with the monsoon still weeks away, IRSA has warned of a 21 per cent water shortage in the early kharif season and 7 per cent towards the end.Pakistan has been relentless in its efforts to convince India to reinstate the Indus treaty. Last week, India Today reported that Islamabad wrote as many as four letters to Delhi, urging the latter to reconsider its decision to stop the treaty before Operation Sindoor. Sources told India Today TV that Pakistan also requested the World Bank, which brokered the deal, to intervene in the matter. However, the global body refused to mediate in the matter.The Indus Waters Treaty allocates the eastern rivers - Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - to India and the western ones, such as Jhelum, Chenab and Indus, to Pakistan. Responding to the water move last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi firmly said that water and blood cannot flow together.India is also strengthening its water infrastructure, aimed at bettering its domestic storage and strategic hold over the shared waters. This includes new canal projects connecting Beas to Ganga and Indus to Yamuna.Trending Reel
IN THIS STORY#Operation Sindoor#India-Pakistan
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