India to divert Indus waters to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan after treaty suspension, says Manohar Lal

Union minister for power and Former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

Union Minister Manohar Lal on Friday said that the water previously flowing to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty will be diverted to Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan within the next one to one-and-a-half years.

Speaking at the launch of the Delhi Drainage Master Plan 2025, Lal remarked, “Jaise kehte hain na, aapda mein bhi avsar hai (Sometimes disasters can prove to be blessings in disguise)… Sometimes, even in disaster, opportunity arises.”

He added that following the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists, the government suspended the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan. “The large quantity of water that was discharged towards Pakistan will now be brought and supplied to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan in the coming one or one and a half years,” Lal said.

The suspension, announced in April, marks the first time India has halted the treaty since it was signed in 1960. Brokered by the World Bank, the agreement had survived four wars, decades of cross-border terrorism, and longstanding hostility between the two countries. It governed the sharing of the Indus River system between India and Pakistan.

Under the treaty, India had exclusive rights over the eastern rivers, namely the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi, with an average annual flow of approximately 33 million acre-feet (MAF).

The western rivers, Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab, with an annual flow of around 135 MAF, were largely allocated to Pakistan. With the suspension, those waters have been stopped from flowing across the border and will now be used domestically.