This report, commissioned by the United States Institute of Peace, examines the Indus Waters Treaty and its role in contemporary international hydropolitics in the Indus basin, paying particular attention to the most recent river development projects on the Indian side of the Indus’s three western tributaries. Conflicts around contemporary large-scale water development projects in the Indian and Pakistani parts of the Indus basin are also reviewed. Arguing against assumptions about the inevitability of conflict over water because of its future absolute scarcity, this report finds that, on the international level, the lack of transparency in data sharing between India and Pakistan and the trust deficit between them have real potential for accentuating tensions in the aubcontinent. It also finds that, on the subnational level, focus on the supply side of water management and pervasive inequities and inefficiencies in water distribution in both India and Pakistan have the potential to drive interprovincial conflict in Pakistan.
