Pakistan is grappling with a deepening water crisis, with cities including Lahore and large swathes of Punjab province experiencing acute shortages — yet Islamabad continues to deflect blame toward India rather than confront the structural and governance failures driving the emergency, according to a report by the Eurasian Times.

Scale of the Crisis

The report, citing International Water Management Institute (IWMI) country assessments covering 2024–2026, found that nearly 95 per cent of Pakistan's freshwater is consumed by agriculture. Of that, roughly 60 per cent of irrigation water is lost through inefficient canals and field delivery systems — a structural inefficiency the report describes as among the worst in the world. Excessive groundwater extraction has compounded the crisis, particularly in Punjab, where the water table has dropped sharply over successive years.

Pakistan's Diplomatic Strategy on the Indus Waters Treaty

Pakistan recently hosted an international seminar at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad, titled 'Indus Waters Treaty: An Instrument of Peace and Regional Stability'. The Eurasian Times characterised the framing as deliberate: 'The title of this seminar was strategically framed to present the issue as a grave regional security challenge requiring immediate international intervention. This is similar to how Pakistan has long portrayed Kashmir as a nuclear flashpoint by linking its resolution to peace and security in South Asia. It has now attempted to employ the same strategy with the Indus Waters Treaty.'

The report also noted that while Pakistan frequently cites the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) — signed in 1960 — as a model of transboundary cooperation, its six-decade survival has largely depended on India's consistent exercise of 'goodwill and generosity' as the upper riparian state. 'Now imagine if Pakistan had been the upper riparian state. It is difficult to believe that it would not have leveraged its upstream position from the very beginning and used the treaty as an instrument of pressure against India,' the report stated.

Treaty Violations and Cross-Border Terrorism

The Eurasian Times report argued that Pakistan repeatedly violated the spirit of the IWT by launching wars against India in 1965, 1971, and during the Kargil conflict in 1999. It further noted Pakistan's alleged sponsorship of cross-border terrorism, citing the Parliament attack of December 2001, the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, the Pulwama attack of February 2019, and the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 2025 as a pattern of conduct inconsistent with the treaty's cooperative framework.

'Following the Pahalgam attack, the Government of India placed the treaty in abeyance. India has now explicitly linked the future of the Indus Waters Treaty to Pakistan ending cross-border terrorism, making any future cooperation contingent upon Pakistan's actions in this regard,' the report stated.

Financial Assistance and Missed Opportunities

The report highlighted that the 1960 signing of the IWT came with a significant international financing package. Under that arrangement, Pakistan received approximately £62 million from India — alongside contributions from other donor nations — to construct replacement infrastructure including dams, barrages, canals, and storage facilities. Despite this financial support, Pakistan reportedly failed to build adequate water storage capacity, a shortfall that critics argue has left the country structurally vulnerable to the very shortages it now attributes to India.

What Comes Next

With the IWT in abeyance following the Pahalgam attack, and India explicitly conditioning any resumption of treaty cooperation on Pakistan's action against cross-border terrorism, the diplomatic and hydrological stakes have rarely been higher. Whether Islamabad pivots toward internal water reform or continues to internationalise the dispute will likely shape both regional water security and bilateral relations for years ahead.