When India placed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance last year, attention naturally focused on the diplomatic and legal consequences of the decision. Yet the more consequential question may lie elsewhere: what happens when transparency begins to disappear from one of the world’s most successful transboundary water-sharing arrangements?

The answer can be found in the long-running controversy surrounding India’s Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project.

For more than six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty has survived wars, military crises and recurring periods of hostility between India and Pakistan. Frequently cited as one of the world’s most durable water-sharing agreements, the treaty established a framework through which both countries managed competing interests over a river system vital to hundreds of millions of people.

Today, however, the challenge facing the treaty extends beyond water allocation itself. It concerns transparency, compliance and the growing strategic value of information in shared river basins.

The controversy has acquired renewed significance following India’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance after the April 2025 Pahalgam attack. While the immediate debate focused on the legal and diplomatic implications of suspending treaty mechanisms, a less examined consequence has been the growing uncertainty surrounding data sharing, project transparency and compliance monitoring. The move also raised concerns that data-sharing........

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