World Bank has no role beyond facilitator in Indus treaty: Banga

The World Bank has no role to play, beyond a facilitator, in the Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 for sharing the waters of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers, said its President Ajay Banga.

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This comes amid speculations that the World Bank may intervene to resolve the issue after India suspended the pact following the killings of civilians in Pahalgam.

“We have no role to play, beyond that of a facilitator. There’s a lot of speculation in the media about how the World Bank will step in and fix the problem, but it’s all bunk. The World Bank’s role is merely that of a facilitator,” the PIB quoted World Bank President Ajay Banga, in its post on X.

The Indus Waters Treaty, which was brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

At the time of Independence, the boundary demarcation between the two newly formed nations — India and Pakistan — had cut through the Indus Basin, leaving India as the upper riparian state. The water of the Indus river system is crucial to both India and Pakistan.

The Indus river system encompassed the Indus, and its tributaries – the Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Jhelum, Chenab and the Kabul — an Indus tributary that does not flow through the Indian territory.