Water is an essential ingredient for the preservation of life on earth. But, the declining magnitude of water and its increasing demand has widened the gulf between water accessibility and water demand. In Pakistan, high population growth rates, feudal and aristocratic dominancy over community advantageous areas, swift urbanization, climatic changes, local and social variances in collaboration of absence of institutional responsibility and governance malfunctions have pressurized and over-stressed the water resources of the country.
Pakistan is one of the world’s most arid countries, with an average rainfall of under 240mm per year. The population and economy heavily depends on water. There is an annual influx of about 180 billion cubic meters of water in Indus River System. It emanates from the neighboring countries and is mostly derived from snowmelt in the Himalayas. Pakistan is faced with an emerging water crisis in various forms, like irrigated agriculture, municipal, rural water supply and sanitation, maintenance of supply systems, flood management, drought management, water quality and trans-boundary water sharing.
There is a long-standing debate on the issue of distribution of available water among the provinces of the country to meet their requirements and face future challenges. Conflict over water distribution and management is also an existing challenge to hydropower development in Pakistan. Much of these disputes are centered on the construction of dams on the Indus river basin, and stem from a power asymmetry between upstream and downstream riparian, where there is a tendency for the former to over-extract water in times of shortage. In the absence of detailed benefit sharing plans between regional states, politicians fear that proper compensation will not be paid.
The inter-provincial water dispute mainly revolves around the construction of Dams on the Indus Basin. Punjab favors the construction of Kala Bagh Dam and Great Canal, while Sindh always rejects the idea by claiming that, “We have less water resources and if Punjab build any reservoir in his area of influence then we don’t even have a drop to drink”. The dispute between Sindh (lower riparian) and Punjab (upper riparian) over water distribution dates back to the era of pre-partition.
Indus is the main source of irrigation for Pakistan’s agriculture – a sector that employs around 13% of the country’s population and more than 50% of the rural population. As a result of rising population and industrial activity, Pakistan has become increasingly water scarce and suffers severe energy shortages. Although water scarcity has often been attributed to mismanagement, climate change has also played a role.
For sharing and distribution of surface water two major agreements have been made; one at international level with India i.e., Indus Water Treaty of 1960 and secondly, at national level among provinces called Apportionment of Waters of Indus River System, among the provinces of Pakistan in 1991.
Since the inception of Pakistan, there have been a number of occasions when the provinces showed mutual goodwill and accommodation in resolving long-standing disputes. The construction of Kotri, Taunsa and Gudu Barrages on the main Indus River after independence was the result of such goodwill and cooperation. Similarly, the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord was a major breakthrough and a turning point in its march towards national consolidation.
The Chief Ministers and other representatives of the four provinces signed the Water Apportionment Accord on March 16, 1991 at Karachi. The accord was adopted as a decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) on March 21, 1991.
The Water Accord also lays down the distribution of the balance river supplies, including flood supplies as well as the future storages as 37% each to Punjab and Sindh, 14% to NWFP and 12% to Balochistan.
Major reason for growing water conflicts throughout the globe is the increasing demand of limited resources. Despite the Accord, there are significant disputes among the provinces over the current distribution of water.
Provinces in Pakistan are also in conflict over use of maximum quantity of water for their agricultural, industrial and domestic needs. Failure to manage uneven distribution of rainfall, seasonal deluge and depletion of glaciers, are adversely affecting the availability of fresh water in Pakistan. The per capita availability of water in Pakistan was 5210 cubic meter in 1951,it reduced to 1100 cubic meter in 2012. It is projected to be 877 cubic meter in 2020. Some global warming projections have been estimated a decrease in the water availability in the Indus river system to a staggering 40 percent by mid-century, which if it were to happen would threaten the very survival of a population already swollen beyond sustainability. Such circumstances further aggravated the water conflicts among the provinces.
Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, almost province-like unit, Gilgit-Baltiastan and federal territory of “Azad” Kashmir (Pakistan side of Kashmir) always alleged that Punjab steals their share of water by diverting the water from river Indus and its tributaries to provide benefit to its farmers. There is also a problem of different treatments meted out by the provinces in Pakistan due to the phenomenon called “Punjabisation” of Punjab. Under its burden even the logical and legal demands of the other provinces have been either overlooked or being ignored. Punjab has attained this status because of the key role it has played in throughout post-independence Pakistan’s history. It is home to Pakistan Army, which has wielded power directly for two and half decades and indirectly for longer still. Even during the civilian regimes; the region has been of pivotal importance.
The massive irrigation projects introduced by the British in the late 1880s ensured the west Punjab would be the bread basket of Pakistan, just as it had been of British India. Even today Punjab is bread basket of Pakistan and also industrially developed than other provinces. Due to its political status and economic importance it uses maximum resources of Pakistan. This dominance has been more oftenly challenged by the others.
As water shortage increases, so are the tensions between the provinces of Punjab-Sindh and Sindh-Balochistan. Recently, the Balochistan government also accused Sindh of stealing water from the province. Liaquat Shahwani, Balochistan’s government spokesperson stated that, “Balochistan should get 7600 cusecs of water from Pat Feeder Canal, but is actually only getting 6,000 cusecs of water from Sindh”.
Punjab has always accused Sindh of under-reporting water availability for irrigation. Sindh still feels aggrieved because the accord of 1991 didn’t guarantee a minimum environmental flow of river water through the provinces into the sea. Consequently, the provinces have been accusing each other of stealing water.
As Ernest Gellner maintains; reason for nationalism is the denial of economic resources by a dominant region. Regionalism is growing very strongly due to this deficit of democratic-decentralization. The civil-society has failed to engage into a serious debate over the issue of water, which gives ample space to the politicians to exploit parochial and regional sentiments.
Pakistan is facing grave problem due to inter-provincial water conflicts. The federal as well as the provincial governments have to utilize the available resources judiciously, without diverting and disturbing the flow of the IRS water. The multipurpose projects are also source of concern because they are being politically used to deprive others from using their indigenous resources. Pakistani establishment must look out for better form of management of their water resources instead of going for endless multipurpose projects construction over the IRS. Also Pakistan has to improve its water management infrastructure to store rain water and even flood waters.
