Pakistan will remember 2025 for a couple of reasons. One, and most pivotal of them, is water, and not because of a single catastrophic event, but because multiple hydrological, political, and climatic crises converged simultaneously, dismantling the long-held assumption that water management is merely a technical or seasonal concern.

Throughout the year, water moved decisively into the realm of national security, federal cohesion, public health, and regional diplomacy.

Pakistan entered 2025 with a drier-than-average winter, slid rapidly into one of the most severe heatwave seasons on record, endured compound monsoon disasters, and concluded the year facing unprecedented transboundary water hostility on both its eastern and western borders.

The challenges, however, were not just external. Internally, long-standing inter-provincial distrust over water allocation erupted into mass protests, as Sindh confronted an existential crisis spanning agriculture, access to drinking water, coastal survival, and deteriorating infrastructure.

Below, we take a closer look at all that unfolded this year to make 2025 a turning point in Pakistan’s water history.

The Indus Waters Treaty shock

Historically, the Indus Water Treaty, forged by an unlikely alliance of world powers in 1960, withstood over six decades, survived wars, and braved diplomatic crises, serving as a stunning example of international cooperation.

All of that, however, collapsed in 2025, when on April 23, India formally placed the treaty in abeyance following the Pahalgam attack. The immediate consequence was not the physical diversion of river flows, but the suspension of hydrological data sharing, which is an essential pillar for flood forecasting, reservoir operations, and irrigation planning in downstream Pakistan.

The loss of advanced flow information during an exceptionally volatile monsoon season sharply increased downstream flood risk and operational uncertainty. Although Pakistan managed information through alternative national and international sources, India’s posture in water diplomacy appeared increasingly irresponsible, signalling an attempt to weaponise water.

This weaponisation of water and consistent threats were met with an appropriate and timely response from Pakistan, which involved declaring any unilateral diversion of western rivers an act of war and marking an unprecedented securitisation of water. Although international arbitration processes continued and interpretative rulings were issued later in the year, the treaty’s normative authority was thoroughly weakened.

The western frontier: Afghanistan and the Kunar River

While attention remained fixed on India, a quieter but equally destabilising hydrological threat emerged on Pakistan’s western frontier. In October 2025, the Taliban administration ordered the immediate construction of a major dam on the Kunar River, a tributary that provides the bulk of the flow to the Kabul River system, sustaining large parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In the absence of a formal water-sharing treaty between Pakistan and Afghanistan, bilateral water relations rely on customary practices that are now under visible strain. Few voices in Pakistan called for the counter-diversion of the Chitral River, signalling how water infrastructure has begun to function as a........

© Dawn Prism