Panic in Pakistan as India vows to cut off water supply over Kashmir

LATIFABAD/NEW DELHI - Spraying pesticides on his parched vegetables one street away from the Indus River, Pakistani farmer Homla Thakhur is worried about his future. The sun is at its peak, the river is running very low, and India has vowed to cut supplies upstream after a deadly militant attack in Kashmir.

“If they stop water, all of this will turn into the Thar desert, the whole country,” said Mr Thakhur, 40, before heading back to the river to refill the tank for the spray gun.

“We’ll die of hunger.”

His nearly 2ha farm is located in the Latifabad area of the south-eastern province of Sindh, from where the Indus flows into the Arabian Sea after originating in Tibet and snaking through India.

Mr Thakhurs fears were echoed by more than 15 Pakistani farmers and several other experts, especially as rain has been scanty in recent years.

For the first time, India on April 23 suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 that ensures water for 80 per cent of Pakistani farms, saying it would last until “Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism”.

India says two of the three militants who attacked tourists and killed 26 men in Kashmir were from Pakistan. Islamabad has denied any role and said “any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan... will be considered as an Act of War”.

The treaty split the Indus and its tributaries between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Government officials and experts on both sides say India cannot stop water flows immediately, because the treaty has allowed it to only build hydropower plants without significant storage or dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan. But things could start changing in a few months.

“We will ensure no drop of