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Interstate rivers and water sharing
A quarter century dispute over the Sone has been settled by agreement between Bihar and Jharkhand, while the tribunals Tamil Nadu asked for on the Pennaiyar and on Mekedatu are still not constituted. The Centre is meanwhile pressing river linking as the answer to scarcity, which critics say will multiply the disputes. And on the Brahmaputra, where India is the downstream State, there is no treaty with China at all.
How a river dispute is settled
- Article 262 lets Parliament provide by law for deciding disputes over interstate river waters, and keep the courts out of them.
- The Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 is that law, under which the Centre constitutes a tribunal when a State asks for one.
- States may instead settle by negotiated agreement, which binds them without any tribunal at all.
River linking
- The links are proposed under the National Perspective Plan of 1980 and worked up by the National Water Development Agency, each one an inter-basin transfer.
Rivers that cross the border
1997
UN Watercourses Convention; neither India nor China has joined
2002
Flood season memorandum on the Brahmaputra
2005
Flood season memorandum on the Sutlej
2017
China stops sharing Brahmaputra data during the Doklam standoff
- The Yarlung Tsangpo is the Brahmaputra's name in Tibet, so India and Bangladesh lie downstream of whatever is built on it.
- India has no water treaty with China, and the Expert Level Mechanism that carries the data is consultative only.
- More than 14,000 glacial lakes dot the Tibetan Plateau, growing fastest near China's southern borders.
- A flood from one can reach the border in minutes, so upstream data is part of a warning system rather than a courtesy.
What has happened
6 Sep 2026
China pressed on with its dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo, little of it public, as Nepal's flood renewed the call for binding data sharing.
- Construction began in July 2025 on a dam Chinese analysts project at about 60 GW, three times the Three Gorges.
- Water may be diverted through a 40 km tunnel at the Great Bend, so India cannot judge the effect downstream.
- The ask is regular sharing and a joint impact assessment, not exchanges only during a disaster.
The Hindu, 6 Sep 2026 · The Indian Express, 7 Sep 2026: Two countries and a shared river: Mistrust is not inevitable (opens in a new tab)
3 Sep 2026
An op-ed rejected the Home Minister's claim that river linking could keep India free of water shortage for a century.
- Tamil Nadu's requests for tribunals on the Pennaiyar in November 2019 and on Mekedatu in March 2026 are unanswered, one despite a Supreme Court direction.
- A receiving region may demand its transferred water even in a distress year, at the cost of the original users.
- Demand side management is the alternative: conserve, reward efficient farm use, and curb groundwater drawn on free power.
The Hindu, 3 Sep 2026: River-linking is not the solution (opens in a new tab)
1 Sep 2026
Bihar and Jharkhand signed a memorandum of understanding dividing the Sone's water, ending a dispute open since Jharkhand was carved out in 2000.
- Bihar takes 5.75 million acre-feet and Jharkhand 2, from the 7.75 undivided Bihar held under the Bansagar Agreement of 1973.
- The Sone rises near Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh and joins the Ganga near Patna as a right bank tributary.
18 Aug 2026
Adivasis in Chhatarpur are resisting the Ken-Betwa link, the first of the interlinking projects to be built.
- A 231 km canal will carry Ken water to the Betwa, with the Daudhan dam inside Panna Tiger Reserve.
- Ten villages will be submerged and twelve more displaced for compensatory afforestation.
- Villagers allege eviction before compensation and irregular gram sabha consent.