Indus Water Treaty (1960): river allocations and asymmetrical obligations

Under the treaty, India received exclusive rights to the three Eastern rivers — Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — while Pakistan received rights to the three Western rivers — Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum. India was permitted limited, non-consumptive uses of the Western rivers (run-of-river hydropower) subject to design and operational restrictions. The treaty included a financial provision in which India paid approximately £62 million to Pakistan to build infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It also imposed unilateral, asymmetric restrictions on India's use of the Western rivers, including limits on irrigated area, storage capacity, and specific design criteria for hydropower facilities.

Pakistan delayed its formal acceptance for nearly five years, finally accepting the proposal on 22 December 1958.

World Bank's first substantive proposal required significant one-sided concessions from India: all planned Indian developments along the upper reaches of both the Indus and Chenab were to be abandoned in favor of benefits accruing to Pakistan; India was to forgo diverting approximately 6 MAF from the Chenab; no Chenab waters at Merala (now in Pakistan) would be available for Indian use; and no water development would be permitted in Kutch from the river system.

Following the partition of British India in 1947, the Indus River System was divided between the two successor states. The article notes the geographic reality that India, as the upper riparian state, held the headwaters of most rivers, while Pakistan's agricultural heartland—the heavily irrigated Punjab plains—depended critically on continued water flows from the eastern rivers.