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Why did the partition of British India create a dispute over Indus River water?

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Physical map showing the Indus River basin and its drainage network across parts of Pakistan, India, China, and Afghanistan. The map details river courses, tributaries, canals, dams, irrigated and marsh areas, sand regions, and elevation changes with shaded relief. International, disputed, and control boundaries are marked, and a small locator map in the corner shows the basin's position within South Asia. — Indus River The Indus River basin and its drainage network.

The partition of British India in 1947 created a significant dispute over the Indus River because the new international boundary bifurcated an elaborate, integrated irrigation system.12

The Radcliffe Line divided the Bari Doab and Sutlej Valley projects, leaving the essential headworks in India while the corresponding canals ran through Pakistan. This separation disrupted the water supply to downstream areas in Pakistan, leading to immediate conflicts over distribution. Following the expiration of a temporary Standstill Agreement, India briefly withheld water from canals flowing into Pakistan in 1948, necessitating further negotiations.123

This impasse was eventually resolved through the Indus Waters Treaty (1960), brokered by the World Bank. The treaty established a legal framework for the use of the river system, assigning the waters of the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab) to Pakistan and the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej) to India.32