Indus Waters Treaty paused. Is Mangla Dam first casualty of diplomatic war with Pak?

India's diplomatic offensive against Pakistan includes the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Pakistan's Mangla dam lies on one of the Western Rivers allocated to it, the Jhelum.

In Short

• Diplomatic offensive may impact Pakistan's Mangla Dam
• Dam lies on Jhelum River in PoK
• Assisted development by the US, but aid declining

In a massive diplomatic move against Pakistan, India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 — a step taken in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 22. One of the first casualties of the diplomatic war may be Pakistan’s grand Mangla Dam, located on the Jhelum river in the Mirpur district of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Mangla project began in 1961 after Pakistan and India signed the treaty. That gave Pakistan rights to three rivers in India: the Jhelum, the Chenab and the Indus, according to the Institution of Civil Engineers. Mangla was the first of two dams built to strengthen Pakistan’s ability to irrigate its crops. The other was the Tarbela dam on the Indus. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Mangla is the world’s 11th-largest dam based on volume.

Interestingly, Pakistan began renovating this dam in August 2013, and the work was completed in September 2024, according to the US State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance. The US assisted Pakistan with the Mangla Dam Rehabilitation Project.

The project focused on modernising and increasing the power generation capacity of the Mangla Hydropower Plant. Of the overall foreign assistance of $232 million that Pakistan received from the US in 2024, nearly $50 million was for completing this project.

Fall in US assistance for Pakistan

While the US has been a strong source of financial support for Pakistan, both in terms of military and economic assistance, the trend has significantly changed in recent years. Financial support for peace and security has especially taken a hit.

The funds for the peace and security category are aimed towards six areas: weapons of mass destruction; conflict mitigation and reconciliation; counterterrorism; stabilisation operations and security sector reform; counternarcotics; general security; and transnational crime. The assistance in all these areas has decreased in recent years.

With a severe hit on new and expensive hydropower projects, at a time when foreign assistance to Pakistan is seeing a declining trend, the diplomatic offensive has hit the country where it would hurt the most.