While Afghanistan and Pakistan share seven rivers and the former has collaborated with India to build a dozen dams on these water resources a bilateral agreement is the compelling need of the hour. With a population boom over time, and the irrigational needs of the two countries, Islamabad and Kabul should reach out for arbitration from global bodies. While both sides have been reported to initiate new water conservation units on the rivers flowing in from Afghanistan, an agreement would also help counter the twin threats India is weaving for Pakistan by financing the construction of dams in that country.
Furthermore, resolving the water conflict would prevent the Afghanistan-Pakistan region from getting dragged down through another dimension of disputes. Kabul and Kunar (known as the River Chitral in Pakistan) are two main rivers that have an essential flow in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Although water conservation and dam building issues in Pakistan have remain controversial on the grounds of nationalist agendas where various parties have failed to reach consensus over the dire need of dams for the country. If Pakistan, once again, fails to take timely action by approaching the right parties and devising a water sharing formula that caters to the needs of the two countries, it is quite possible that it might be faced with the situation similar to the one it has experienced with India where Kishanganga Dam was built ignoring the World Bank directives.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2018.
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