[Today’s Prayer] Indian Minister: "We will build a canal to divert water heading to Pakistan"

The Indian Home Minister announced that he would build a canal to divert water from India to Pakistan back to India.

India's Home Minister Amit Shah said in an interview with the Times of India, an Indian newspaper, on the 21st that the suspension of the Indus River Treaty "will never be restored."

"Water flowing to Pakistan will be diverted to Rajasthan by constructing a canal," Shah said, adding, "Pakistan will no longer receive the water it has been receiving unfairly."

In 1960, India and Pakistan signed the Indus Treaty, mediated by the World Bank. According to this treaty, India cannot block the flow of the Indus River and its tributaries, the Chenab and Jhelum, from India to Pakistan.

The treaty remained in place even as the two countries fought a war.

However, India announced last month that it would suspend the Indus River Treaty ahead of its armed conflict with Pakistan, and has continued to suspend it even after a ceasefire following the conflict.

The situation could rekindle tensions with Pakistan as India announced concrete plans to divert the Indus River after it ceased its irrigation.

Pakistan depends on the Indus River tributaries for 80 percent of its water resources, so if India blocks the waterway, hydroelectric power generation could be halted, and irrigation water could be in short supply, dealing a huge blow to agriculture.

Source: News

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. (Deuteronomy 28:12)

Heavenly Father, we hear that the Indian government has announced that it will build a canal to divert the Indus River from flowing into Pakistan to India, and that it will never reinstate the suspension of the Indus River Treaty, which under the Indus River Treaty made it impossible for India to stop the flow of the Indus River and its tributaries, the Chenab and Jhelum rivers, from India to Pakistan.

We trust that You will not turn a blind eye to India's foolishness in breaking the Indus River Treaty, which is so important that it has survived the wars between India and Pakistan, and using the Indus River as a tool to blackmail Pakistan by holding it hostage.

Lord, we ask You to reverse all decisions by India to use Your grace, which causes rain to fall on all lands and springs to gush forth, as a weapon of politics and revenge, and to protect the lives and livelihoods of the people of Pakistan who depend on the Indus River for drinking water. Remember the Pakistani farmers and families whose livelihoods will be threatened by the disruption of hydropower operations and the lack of irrigation water.

We declare that the man-made treaty of the Indus River is broken, but the Word of God and the laws of the Holy Spirit of Life stand forever. Let the rivers of life spring up in the hearts of the souls of Pakistan, and let the rivers of the Holy Spirit flow in the midst of all hatred and anxiety toward India, washing away all sin and hurt.

May the global church mediate between India and Pakistan, teaching that neither country can claim ownership of the Indus River, but that it is a shared resource created by God. May we proclaim the grace of Jesus Christ, who gave his life on the cross to save lives, proving that we are called brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lord, may the churches of India and Pakistan first rise up and pray for one another, forgive one another in the love of the cross of Jesus Christ, and repent of all sinful hearts that have hated one another; and then may You open the treasury of heaven and pour out the rain of Your Holy Spirit upon the land of India and Pakistan, that they may become a blessed people, preaching the gospel of life to all nations.

May holy churches be raised up in all parts of India and Pakistan, and may one million missionaries in India and 100,000 missionaries in Pakistan preach the gospel to all the nations along the Asian Highway, and may we be a holy people serving one another in the name of Jesus Christ, the source of life!