Pakistan Suspends Cholistan Canal Project Amid Tensions

🌍 INTERNATIONAL

April 28, 2025
Thematic Focus: India-Pakistan Relations | Water Diplomacy | GS Paper 2 & 3

🕊️ Intro Whisper:

When rivers become borders and canals become battlegrounds, water no longer flows — it fractures.

🔹 Key Highlights: Pakistan Suspends Cholistan Canal Project Amid Tensions

• Cholistan Canal Project suspended amid:
  • India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)
  • Domestic unrest, especially from Sindh province
• Part of Pakistan’s Green Pakistan Initiative
  • Intended to irrigate 1.2 million acres in Cholistan Desert
  • Involved six canals, military-backed
  • Goals: food security, job creation, arable land expansion
• Sindh Assembly opposed the project, citing violations of the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord
  • Rising inter-provincial tensions within Pakistan
• Environmental concerns:
  • Reduced flow to Indus Delta
  • Rising salinity, desertification, and biodiversity loss
• India suspended the IWT in response to heightened tensions
  • IWT (1960) divides eastern (India) and western (Pakistan) rivers
  • Pakistan’s water dependence on IWT increases vulnerability
• Water crisis in Pakistan:
  • Among world’s most water-stressed nations
  • 75% of renewable water resources withdrawn annually
  • Sindh faces 40–45% water deficit yearly

🧭 Concept Explainer:

Water is no longer just a natural resource — it is now a geopolitical lever. The suspension of Pakistan’s Cholistan project reflects a multi-layered crisis: ecological, political, and diplomatic. The decision marks a critical juncture where internal water governance and external hydropolitics collide.

This signals the need for transboundary water diplomacy, environmental safeguards, and decentralized inter-provincial negotiations within Pakistan.

🧾 GS Mapping:

• GS Paper 2: International Treaties | India-Pakistan Relations | Federal Governance
• GS Paper 3: Water Resources | Environmental Degradation | Disaster Management

💠 A Thought Spark — by IAS Monk:

“When treaties dry up and trust evaporates, even a canal becomes a crack in the continent’s peace.”