The writer is a lawyer and a researcher at Research Society of International Law, a Lahore-based think tank. She holds a law degree from the University of London
Pakistan is built around a single river system — the Indus Basin — and has gone from being a water-surplus to a water-distressed country over a period of time. This has been a consequence of its burgeoning population. While its population has ballooned, the scale of water in the single river system upon which the country is heavily dependent has remained the same, leading to a serious water crisis.
Pakistan’s water security is under a series of unprecedented threats. This is due to inadequate and poor water management and climate change, which seem to have a profound impact on the problem of water scarcity. The Indus, which rises from the Himalayas, is unique in nature as it lies in the low-rainfall area. Hence, the pace at which snow is melting over the Himalayas can have disastrous ramifications for the water security of the country.
So, what is the way out for Pakistan? It is, perhaps, pertinent to blame the Indus Waters Treaty for the water-stress we face, but doing away with the treaty will not do justice to it as it has survived three wars and stood the test of time. When the Indus Waters Treaty was signed — the 1960s — there was an abundance of water and climate change did not have an overwhelming impact on water flows. It is believed that the treaty was not drafted with a far-sighted approach as it failed to anticipate the repercussions that climate change could have, but that does not imply that the parties cannot stay within its ambit to resolve their water issues. The best possible option for Pakistan is to explore new areas of cooperation within the scope of the treaty. The treaty itself favours cooperation whenever a conflict emerges, as Article VII talks about “future cooperation”.
Pakistan is facing serious interprovincial conflicts related to water that need to be addressed. These arose due to inequitable water sharing among the provinces and water shortages. The 1991 Indus Waters Apportionment Act was designed to ensure even-handed sharing of the Indus waters among the provinces. Despite this accord, there are endless disputes on water amongst the provinces. Pakistan needs to work towards fixing these disputes in order to combat water scarcity and to ensure equal supplies of water to all provinces. The Indus River System Authority (IRSA), under the IRSA Act of 1992, is responsible for the distribution of water among the provinces, and the state is responsible for ensuring equal water supplies. If it fails to do so, Article 155 of the Constitution gives the right to the aggrieved party to take the matter to the Council of Common Interests. Water crises can be addressed if we fix our internal shortcomings. This can be achieved if we follow the 1991 Accord in letter and in spirit, enhance IRSA’s technical capabilities and ensure that it penalises petty water thefts.
It is important to realise that we cannot operate outside the framework of the Indus Waters Treaty. This has been pointed out by David Lilienthal, former chairperson of the Tennessee Valley Authority. On his visit to India and Pakistan, he proposed that both work out a joint programme to develop the Indus River Basin System. He highlighted that the water resources of the Indus Basin should be used to promote its economic development. Notwithstanding that, both countries are determined to solve the issue of the use of the Indus Basin’s water resources on a political plane instead of a functional one. Presently, Pakistan has two options: to adhere to the treaty or look into the options of revising it. We need a far-sighted approach. If Pakistan manages to take the water crisis in its stride, a bridge could be built over the troubled relations with India.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2013.
COMMENTS (24)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Solution for Pakistan is simple which it has been avoiding for the last half a centuary. It is water storage. The north has a terrain that is extremely conducive for building small to medium sized dams. There is sparse population so the socio-economic impact in the region will be less. Mountains provide most of the infrastructure. Unfortunately, it has been avoided all this time for cheap, opportunistic and short-sighted political gains. Secondly, climate change has caused catestrophic floods in Pakistan in the last few years. While this could have not been predicted but could have easily been prevented by building cascaded reservoirs which would again act as water storage as well as flood defenses. Lastly, Pakistan needs to also think of water distribution. We have had no meaningful progress in our canal network since the British left. That is why the population huddles the rivers. We need more canals, especially into Baluchistan and KPK. Water distribution will also result in population dispersion. So, dam Indus :) and then take canals out of it.
There is no problem with the Indus treaty or the water availability. The real issue is Pakistan's population, which has increased six-fold over the past six decades reducing the per capita water availability by six time. The solution for Pakistan lies in reducing its population and use enhanced water management techniques.
@khurram kaleem Ji : . IWT is the most natural and balanced contract between india and pakistan.it tool both countries almost 15 years to reach an accord on water .the treaty is running for now 50 years with no major controversy. . Yes Sir, it is very kind of you to call the IWT a balanced contract between India and Pakistan due to Pakistan getting 80.2% of the Indus Waters will India gets only 19.8%. . I hope that Pakistan can address the issues of Loosing Two Thirds of its share of the Indus Waters basically due to Seepages - as the Canal Linings have deteriorated to "Non Existance". . Addressing these issues will find Pakistan having excess of Indus Waters which it may be able to share with its "Disadvantaged" Neighbour. . Cheers
Would it not be fair to ask what the Government did with the Water Sector Task Force study implemented by the ADB and funded by the FoDP (Feb. 2012)? Before opening a can of worms, it would be better if the government would take the water sector serious. Get your act together and start managing the water resources you fully control.
After a very long time I have read an intelligent narrative on water distribution. Impressed and looking forward to your opinion on the same topic
Though this treaty has accommodation for politics between the two countries but in real sense it needs to be improved and implemented on technical grounds. As far as Pakistani side is concerned, nothing concrete had been done for utilization of water management in proper and scientific way. We have not been able to exploit river waters by constructing reservoirs and improve water management system. The treaty provide basic parameters for solution. Therefore we have to improve our own system of water management and solve water issue with India purely on technical grounds.
IWT is the most natural and balanced contract between india and pakistan.it tool both countries almost 15 years to reach an accord on water .the treaty is running for now 50 years with no major controversy.
As neigbours i wish we can replicate Indus treaty with one more accord of Kashmir Treaty.Both nations are matured enough now to DO IT !
Water is the basic requirement for sustenance of life on this planet. As they say in future wars shall be fought over water and not land or markets. Pakistan as a nation is blessed with the seven rivers; with river Saraswati has gone invisible; the 'Sapta Sindhu' that has been the most fertile part of the Aryavaarta just like the Gangetic plain. The rivers Satluj (Shatadru), Ravi (Iravati), Beas (Bipasha), Chenab (Chandrabhaga) and Jhelum (Vitasta) along with the Indus (Sindhu) have indeed given an abundant water resource to Pakistan. The problem now lies in proper harnessing of the water resource. This is not just a problem with Pakistan but even India faces water scarcity and the need for a comprehensive water policy is needed. There had been a proposal in India to connect all rivers together which on similar lines in case of Pakistan too can yield concrete and positive results. Now India and Pakistan together if can work towards a joint strategy with regard to harnessing of this water resource by connecting all the rivers and in addition to conserve the water resource. This is a policy which ideally will prove fruitful if the four neighbours viz Pakistan, India, China and Bangladesh together form a joint alliance with regard to harnessing of the water resource and ensuring an equitable water sharing among themselves. The reason why India shall need to play the most vital and important role is because this the only nation that shares a common boundary with the other three nations viz Pakistan, China and Bangladesh. Connecting of all rivers can be one part of the exercise and distribution without any reservations or pre-conditions shall be the second part of the entire exercise thus working towards minimising the wastage of water and conserving the resource. Water can thus become the catalyst of cooperation not just between Pakistan and India but among all the four Asian nations who are neighbours. The Indo-Pak treaty on sharing of the waters of the Indus can and should be reviewed but with it if the two neighbours can work towards better harnessing of the water resources and framing a policy that can utilise the water resource to the optimum by reducing the wastage the results can prove helpful in bring closer the two neighbours.
@Ms Sara Ali : . At the moment Pakistan is lossing Two Thirds of the Indus Allocated Waters - over 50% of the Total Waters of the Indus River system - due to Seepages and possibly Water Theft. . As such if Pakistan addresses these issues it will have abundant Water Supply and may even share a Part of its Water Largesse with India . Cheers
@Ricky: " Nobody talks about this agreement in which most of the water from our five rivers was given to India ..." Read other comments by your fellow-Pakistanis who recognize that India agreed to a treaty that gave 80% of water to Pakistan. If you don't like that, rescind the treaty. We will thank you for undoing a foolish Prime Minister Nehru's folly. "...a top leader on the other the first military dictator... sold the three rivers to India " How can you sell which you don't own and cannot even control?
This is a article on global warming and future starvation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/apr/13/climate-change-millions-starvation-scientists
quite good suggestions for solving water crisis in near future. most important is to solve inter provincial water distribution.
Very timely and balanced write up by Ms Ali, which asks the Govts/Civil Society to sit together and work on expanding the scope of the Treaty and find ways to help Pak better manage its Water Resource for Glaciers are going to disappear sooner than latter. Exiting or Scrapping the treaty does not change anything. Surely Pak is in no position to use force to take a still larger share than 80% given to it. Clearly the Media and CivilSociety have to create an informed opinion in both the countries to look at the various options of Cooperation, before people get more Water distressed in the Region. Let us put our Heads together and not Weapons, for there is no time to loose in talking about injustices.
The article sounds like a threat option Pak can exercise over India. But the reality seems to be different. Pak will get nothing by going out of the treaty except increasing the trust deficit between the countries.
"Indus Waters Treaty was signed — the 1960s — there was an abundance of water and climate change did not have an overwhelming impact on water flows. It is believed that the treaty was not drafted with a far-sighted approach" The good dictator Gen Ayub not only took the capital farthest away from majority of Pakistanis (Bengalis) but also signed this agreement. Nobody talks about this agreement in which most of the water from our five rivers was given to India and our Punjab was reduced to Doab. On one hand we claim Jinnah to be our father and a top leader on the other the first military dictator moved the capital toward his home farthest away from Bengalis, sold the three rivers to India and started the first full war that killed most of the young Pakistani officers. Now we have no option but to be dependent on the goodwill of India for water.
“Presently, Pakistan has two options: to adhere to the treaty or look into the options of revising it” Are we this naive to be told by the writer? Is there any other possibility?
Can the Indus become a catalyst for cooperation?
One can be sure India will cooperate to the extent possible for it, but do we deserve it, and do we have enough reason to expect that cooperation? A moment's thought, and a look at our own actions in relation to our neighbour, will suffice to convince us that we are expecting too much. Besides, are our own actions, in our own country, towards necessary conservation of water sufficient. Should we be expecting favors from those we call our enemies?
Water will probably be the one thing that may convince us that good relations with India are in our own long-term interest.
IWT is unique in its nature, that in no other water treaty in the entire big world, the upper riparian country has so benevolently given up so much water share to lower country. Till date, there has been no official govt report on indians holding back water, or violating IWT. All this water mess is a self creation out of gross mismanagement and internal politics. As usual, we blame others for our mistakes, which is part of our shameless DNA... but a good article.
If the treaty must be renegotiated now at only 53 years of its life, imagine what may happen in the next 53 years? It will help Pakistan to remember that the water availability will keep reducing gradually in future due to climate change. One can be sure India is not going to agree to anything that may result in a similar situation for itself. The solution lies in proper water conservation and management policies, which Pakistan does not have at present.
I think the two countries should work on a sound technical basis within the Indus Water Treaty with may be a few mutually agreed minor modifications. If we start negotiating a new treaty we might open a Pandora's box as there are many experts who claim that as an Upper Raparaian state India gave away too much as compared to all other similar international treaties in the rest of the world. Sk Mumbai
The Indus Water Treaty was formulated by the World Bank director Black to favor Pakistan to reward for joining the military treaties with America and to punish India for its non-aligned policies. Nehru was kind enough to sign the treaty with Ayub Khan at Pakistan to please America and to show good neighborly relations. But Pakistan has never appreciated the generosity of Nehru. As a tribute to Nehru, India has had let the treaty to remain unrestrained and functional during the wars. Even, that is not appreciated by Pakistan. The cooperation is plausible, will be dramatic for economic development, if Pakistan accepted the LOC as the international boundary that late Z.A. Bhutto promised and later deceptively denied.
Indus Water Treaty is the world's most generous water-sharing pact ,under which India agreed to set aside 80.52% of the waters of the six-river Indus system for Pakistan, keeping for itself just the remaining 19.48% share. Both in terms of the sharing ratio as well as the total quantum of waters reserved for a downstream state, this treaty's munificence is unsurpassed in scale in the annals of international water treaties.The volume of water earmarked for Pakistan is more than 90 times greater than the 1.85 billion cubic metres the US is required to release for Mexico under the 1944 US-Mexico Water Treaty and Once-mighty Colorado River are siphoned by seven American states, leaving only a trickle for Mexico. Jammu and Kashmir state legislature has passed a bipartisan resolution in 2002 calling for scraping of the Indus treaty because the Indus treaty has deprived Jammu and Kashmir of the only resource it has - water .I think its not far when India will do it and will return the water to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
A good point of view and a worthwhile issue. "Presently, Pakistan has two options: to adhere to the treaty or look into the options of revising it" I do not think that there is a choice. To revise a treaty at least two sides need to honestly accept the real situation on the ground and keep interests of the other side in view as well. I cannot see it happening. It is also unfair to Blame Nehru and Ayub for this treaty because 53 years ago it was a different world and this water shortage was not an issue nor was the population explosion in Pakistan. It would be best to work within the treaty but both sides have to be totally cognizant of the other's problems.