Indian actions intensified flood crisis in Pakistan, say officials

Flooding in Pakistan from water flowing downstream from India was exacerbated by New Delhi’s suspension of Indus Waters Treaty and the collapse of gates on an Indian barrage, Pakistani officials said on Friday.

Torrential monsoon rains have ravaged both India and Pakistan this week, with more heavy downpours forecast for the weekend.

On Friday, floodwaters reached the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, and threatened to submerge the major town of Jhang, in what officials described as the worst flooding in nearly 40 years in that region.

The two countries share rivers originating in India that flow into Pakistan, regulated for more than six decades under the Indus Waters Treaty. India suspended the treaty earlier this year following an attack that killed 26 people, which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad — a charge Pakistan strongly denied.

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Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters that India had stopped sharing crucial river flow data. “We could have managed better if we had better information,” Iqbal said. “If the Indus Waters Treaty was in operation, we could have mitigated the impact.”

Indian media broadcast footage on Thursday showing that the middle section of the Madhopur barrage, which spans the Ravi River, had been washed away by surging water. Pakistani officials said the damage unleashed uncontrolled flows across the border, flooding parts of Lahore.

An Indian government source denied deliberately flooding Pakistan but confirmed that two gates of the barrage had collapsed. The source said flows were being managed by the Ranjit Sagar Dam upstream. “India is doing whatever can be done and all the information is being passed on,” the source said. “Incessant rain is causing this flood.”

India’s foreign and water ministries did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.

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Pakistani officials said New Delhi had issued four flood alerts since Sunday, including one on Friday, but without providing detailed data. Since suspending the 1960 treaty, India has communicated warnings through its embassy in Islamabad instead of directly between water officials.

Iqbal, whose own constituency of Narowal near the Indian border was badly affected, said climate change had made the monsoon less predictable, underscoring the importance of cooperation. “Climate change is not a bilateral issue,” he said. “It relates to humanity.”

On the Chenab River, Pakistani authorities on Friday blew up part of the riverbank to divert water threatening Jhang. The government evacuated more than one million people this week in eastern Pakistan, where three overflowing rivers from India pose a grave risk.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority, 820 people have died in the country so far this monsoon season. The flooded eastern region, home to half of Pakistan’s 240 million people and its agricultural heartland, has suffered widespread crop damage.