Climate change will reduce river flows and have major adverse effects on the economies of India and Pakistan.
LAHORE: This is with reference to the letter by Mr Vicram Singh published in these columns on August 18 in response to my op-ed article of August 16, titled “Pakistan’s water crisis”. I am grateful to him for an opportunity to clarify.
My article presents evidence on the existing water scarcity in the Indus Basin, which is accentuated by inefficient utilisation of water supplies. Furthermore, I have argued that climate change will, in future, further reduce river flows and is likely to have major adverse consequences for the economies and societies of India and Pakistan.
On this basis, the article makes a case for Pakistan-India cooperation to take the necessary mitigation and adaptation measures to address a shared problem. When a resource as crucial to life as water, is shared by two countries, severe scarcity can create tensions and when, as in the India-Pakistan case, there is a tendency for mutual recrimination, these tensions can lead to the irrationality of war. I have urged that the problem be handled in a rational way through cooperation.
To misconstrue this as a threat to war as Mr Singh appears to have done is itself irrational. We need to move out of the confines of adversarial nationalist narratives and together try to address a shared problem on the basis of a shared humanity.
Dr Akmal Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2011.
