Musadik calls for binding global water covenant, says water security has become climate justice issue

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jun, 2026) Federal Minister for Climate Change Musadik Malik on Tuesday called for a binding international covenant on transboundary water governance, arguing that the world faces not merely a climate or water crisis but a "crisis of justice" in which the livelihoods, food security and rights of downstream populations are increasingly at risk.

Addressing an international seminar titled "Indus Waters Treaty: An Instrument of Peace and Regional Stability," the minister illustrated the human cost of climate-related disasters through the story of Iqbal Solangi, a Pakistani farmer whose family had cultivated land for seven to eight generations before repeated floods devastated his life.

Malik said Solangi's farm was destroyed in the 2010 floods. After rebuilding, he was hit again in 2012. He temporarily left farming to provide for his family, returned once floodwaters receded, but suffered another devastating blow during the 2022 floods. His livestock, home and his children's schools were washed away, his family was displaced, and he ultimately abandoned farming, likely taking up labour work in Karachi.

The minister said Solangi's story was not unique but reflected the experiences of millions around the world.

He pointed to farmers in Bangladesh who depend on water flows for agriculture and fishing, saying fishermen go hungry and farmers cannot cultivate their land when water fails to arrive.

He also described the plight of women in Africa's Sahel region who walk about four miles each way every day to collect a single bucket of water because rivers near their villages have receded after upstream flows were stopped.

Malik said similar stories could be found along the Nile, in the Tigris marshes, around the former Aral Sea and across the Mekong basin, describing them as manifestations of the same global challenge.

He argued that these situations should not simply be viewed as floods or droughts, but as examples of communities losing control over their water resources.

"The danger is not just too little water or too much water," he said. "The danger is that someone else, who is not you, controls the tap through which your water is going to flow."

Referring to fluctuations in water flows at Marala, Malik said water levels changed from 1,500 cusecs to 78,000 cusecs before falling back to 1,500 cusecs without rainfall to explain the variation. He said the only explanation was that someone else was controlling the flow of water.

The minister said around half of Pakistan's population—approximately 120 million people—depends on agriculture, while roughly one-quarter of the country's GDP and all of its food security rely on the availability of water.

He stressed that the issue should therefore be seen as one of justice rather than simply climate change or water scarcity.

"Solangi didn't build the dams. Solangi didn't break any treaty. Solangi didn't elect the man who controls the tap. And yet, it's Solangi's life that gets devastated," he said.

Malik also linked climate change to the water crisis, saying the same neighbouring country that claims to control water flows is also the world's third-largest polluter.

He argued that greenhouse gas emissions raise global temperatures, causing glaciers to melt and increasing downstream flooding.

According to the minister, the consequences over the past 15 years have included 6,000 deaths, 19,000 injuries or disabilities and the displacement of 40 million people.

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He said prolonged displacement had also disrupted education, estimating that three months of displacement had resulted in the loss of 1.8 billion school days.

He said the same external decisions that determine when floods occur also determine when water is withheld to the point that agricultural land dries out and becomes permanently unproductive.

Turning to the Indus Waters Treaty, Malik said the agreement represented one of the strongest treaties in the world, having survived three wars between two nuclear-armed states.

He argued that if such a treaty could no longer be upheld, then the credibility of the international treaty system established after the Second World War would also be undermined.

The minister questioned the value of international agreements if a country could unilaterally suspend, place in abeyance or walk away from its treaty obligations.

Citing the legal principle pacta sunt servanda—that treaties must be honoured—Malik said, in his view, the treaty had not been suspended but had instead been "revealed" to the world.

He referred to international legal proceedings over the treaty, saying courts had previously delivered decisions that at times favoured Pakistan and at times favoured the neighbouring country, with both sides accepting the outcomes.

He said a subsequent court ruling established technical limits governing the design and operation of water infrastructure and confirmed that no country could unilaterally determine how water would be regulated or withheld.

However, Malik said the neighbouring country rejected the court's jurisdiction, raising broader concerns about the authority of international legal institutions and the future of the global rules-based order.

He warned that allowing any country to disregard international courts and treaties would set a dangerous precedent extending far beyond Pakistan.

"We can take care of ourselves," he said, adding that no one could stop Pakistan's water. "But what about the rest of the world?"

Malik said rivers crossing multiple countries—including those flowing through the Netherlands, Portugal, the Danube basin and the Nile—as well as other shared water systems demonstrate that nearly every country is downstream of another.

He argued that the precedent being established would effectively deny downstream countries their water rights and leave billions of people without meaningful legal protection.

The minister said the issue was therefore not solely Pakistan's case but a global test of water rights for downstream nations.

He questioned why the international community has organisations and legal frameworks governing trade and nuclear proliferation but lacks comparable binding rules governing water, agriculture, food security and drinking water.

Calling for collective international action, Malik urged experts and policymakers to move beyond non-binding declarations adopted at United Nations forums.

"There must be a covenant which has political consequences, which has economic consequences, which has diplomatic consequences," he said, concluding with an appeal to the international community to "rise now, or hold your peace forever."