INDIA’S suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty has reignited debate over one of South Asia’s most important river systems. Much of the discussion has centred on water allocation, infrastructure projects and legal obligations. Yet the deeper question is whether the crisis facing the Indus Basin is really about water scarcity at all. At its core, the crisis is epistemological—a problem of knowledge, understanding and the conceptual framework through which rivers are perceived.

The ecological distress across the Indus Basin is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Natural river flows are being disrupted, wetlands are shrinking, floodplains are losing their ecological function, groundwater reserves are declining and the Indus Delta continues to retreat under the pressure of seawater intrusion. Rising temperatures, accelerating glacier melt, erratic........

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