Water

Water, as a subject of governance, occupies a defined place in the constitutional schemes of South Asian federations and in the corpus of international river law. In India, 'Water' appears as Entry 17 of the State List (Seventh Schedule) — covering water supplies, irrigation, canals, drainage, embankments, water storage and water power — but is explicitly made 'subject to the provisions of Entry 56 of the Union List', which empowers Parliament to regulate inter-State rivers and river valleys in the public interest. Article 262 authorises Parliament to legislate for adjudication of disputes over inter-State river waters and to bar the jurisdiction of courts, including the Supreme Court; the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 and the River Boards Act, 1956 give effect to this. In Pakistan, water is governed through the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, with the 18th Amendment (2010) devolving substantial provincial authority over irrigation.

The mechanism operates at three nested levels. Intra-state, water is managed by provincial irrigation departments, canal commands and groundwater regulation. Inter-state, tribunals adjudicate sharing — India's Krishna, Cauvery (Kaveri), Godavari, Ravi-Beas and Mahadayi tribunals being the classic instances, with the Cauvery dispute culminating in the Supreme Court's 2018 verdict and the constitution of the Cauvery Water Management Authority. Trans-boundary water is governed by treaty: the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, brokered by the World Bank, allocates the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India and the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan, subject to limited Indian non-consumptive and run-of-river use. The Ganga Waters Treaty of 1996 with Bangladesh governs dry-season sharing at the Farakka Barrage.

Named flashpoints recur in exam material: the Kishanganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects, contested by Pakistan before the Permanent Court of Arbitration and a Neutral Expert; the Teesta water-sharing impasse between India and Bangladesh; and the Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs central to Pakistan's storage capacity. India placed the Indus Waters Treaty 'in abeyance' following the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, a development that reframes the treaty's perpetuity clause and the absence of any unilateral exit provision under Article XII. The Sustainable Development Goal 6 and India's Jal Jeevan Mission target universal piped drinking water, while the National Water Policy and the contested River Linking Project shape domestic debate.

For the exam, water spans multiple papers. In UPSC Geography it tests drainage systems, watershed management, hydrological cycle, and irrigation typologies; in GS Paper II it appears under federalism, Centre-State relations and the inter-state disputes machinery (Articles 262, 263, Entry 56). For CSS Pakistan Affairs, candidates must master the Indus Waters Treaty, IRSA, the 1991 Accord and the Kalabagh Dam controversy. The typical question angle asks candidates to reconcile the federal allocation of water with the imperative of integrated river-basin management, or to evaluate whether tribunal adjudication has delivered timely justice. Precise recall of treaty articles, tribunal years and the relevant constitutional entries distinguishes a strong answer.