Having suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), India requested the World Bank’s impartial expert, Michel Lino, to suspend proceedings regarding disputes on the Ratle and Kishanganga hydropower projects, as per Indian Express’s report.
Lino, a French hydropower and dam engineer, has been dealing with this conflict since 2022. He was selected by the World Bank according to the guidelines of the treaty. His role is to serve as a technical mediator, ruling on if these projects comply with the rules of the treaty.
The 1960 treaty assigns to India rights to the Eastern Rivers (Sutlej, Beas, Ravi), and Pakistan retains control of the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab). India is constructing the Kishanganga scheme on a tributary of the Jhelum and the Ratle scheme on the Chenab.
Pakistan claims that India is breaching the treaty, particularly by not keeping necessary levels of water flow.
After the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, in which 26 lives were lost, India chose to suspend the treaty. It formally communicated with Lino and requested him to withdraw the scheduled sequence of the resolution of the Kishanganga and Ratle disputes. Pakistan was not in agreement, resisting any suspension of the process.
Pakistan was to send its formal response to India’s assertions by August 7, and the following joint meeting with Lino was scheduled for November 17–22.
India and Pakistan exchanged letters on suspending the treaty in the meantime. India gave formal notice to Pakistan of the suspension on April 24, and Pakistan agreed to discuss in May but India did not react.
India is set to siphon off Indus water to its own states by building a canal, according to sources. It also conducted sediment-flushing operations at Baglihar and Salal dams on Chenab—something Pakistan had already protested under the treaty. This is for the first time such flushing has been conducted since the dams were constructed, and India now intends to do it monthly in order to enhance power generation.
