Overview
- Indian ministers including Water Minister C.R. Patil and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh publicly vowed to prevent waters of the Indus/Sindhu system from reaching Pakistan, with Patil telling ANI that India is "actively working" so "not a single drop" will flow to Pakistan.
- Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry responded that any attempt to restrict or block flows could be treated as an "act of war" and promised diplomatic, legal and other measures to defend its water rights.
- Indian government notices and tenders in May signalled engineering steps such as a Chenab/Chandra–Beas link tunnel and sediment works at Salal reservoir that officials present as ways to alter cross‑border flows.
- Independent experts and officials say India’s current dams cannot instantly cut western‑river flows and that major diversion projects would take several years to start and at least through the later part of the decade to materially affect downstream supplies.
- Pakistan faces heightened vulnerability because it depends on the Indus basin for most irrigation and a large share of electricity, and its reservoirs and delayed domestic storage projects limit short‑term options to offset upstream measures.