Water Sharing Dispute in Pakistan Standpoint of Provinces

Description

River water sharing is a multidimensional problem. One aspect of the problem is share of each province in river-water and its availability at the time of need. Pakistan is hard pressed between decreasing storage and increasing water demands. The shortage of water for agriculture has become a serious problem in Pakistan and has not been resolved satisfactorily. It has caused much bitterness among the provinces and between the federal government and provinces. The water issue has resulted in creating great distrust among the provinces. Independent water experts have been continuously warning for years that the country’s provinces would come to a serious confrontation if the issue of decreasing water resources is not addressed properly and urgently but their apprehensions were never taken into account by the concerned authorities. Successive federal governments have been unable to solve the problem for fear of losing votes in the aggrieved provinces. They preferred to defer the crisis, which is unresolved to date. The purpose of this article is to analyze varying aspects of the river water sharing dispute with regard to standpoint of provinces on the issue and suggest remedial measures to resolve the issue.