India’s decision to put the agreement “in abeyance” — and the vague conditions it has imposed on Pakistan to reverse that — has injected a note of uncertainty into the future of a treaty that has survived multiple wars and conflicts.

Pakistan will not get water from rivers over which India has rights, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, a month after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir led New Delhi to suspend a key river water-sharing treaty between the neighbours.

For a treaty hailed globally as a triumph of water diplomacy, India paid not just in rivers, but in rupees, following the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan of 1960. Behind the Indus treaty lies the lesser-known story of how India bankrolled Pakistan's water infrastructure,