The global landscape is embroiled in multifarious challenges in the ever changing security environment  where lack of water resources management is emerging as a threat to water security. It is the basic ingredient of life on which civilization and human life thrives, especially so in the case of lower riparian countries that live amid a high risk water environment. Our indispensable dependence on a single river system is indicative of how little we got in the way of robustness which other countries possess by virtue of diverse water resources, leaving no latitude for error.

Of late, indications by Indian Prime Minister including his ministers have confirmed and compounded the doubts of Indian regional water hegemony policy, that India wants to run Pakistan dry and is pursuing policies to strangulate Pakistan by working on projects to tightly circumscribe the water flowing over to Pakistan. Indian PM claimed while addressing a rally, “Sutlej, Beas, Ravi — the waters in these rivers belong to India and our farmers. It is not being used in the fields of Pakistan but flowing into the sea through Pakistan. Now every drop of this water will be stopped and I will give that to farmers of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Indian farmers. I am committed to this.” This aggression is not rhetoric only but rather goes too deep and too far where Indian deep state has always seemed bent on strangulating Pakistani waters. Numerous projects implemented and announced by Indian government on River Indus, Jhelum and Chenab are not only a blatant violation of Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) but would also empower India to manipulate the control of waters in a way that would be inimical to our national security. India has also occasionally threatened to revoke IWT which is an internationally guaranteed Treaty and has worked well so far.

For an economy that depends largely on agriculture and is reliant on the river water for irrigation, India’s water storage projects pose a quandary as these projects carry tremendous capacity and hence can deprive the agricultural community in Pakistan of their due share of the Indus waters. Pakistan has voiced her concerns about India violating the spirit of the IWT and has resorted to the diplomatic and legal means of conflict resolution encapsulated in the Treaty which doesn’t allow interference with the flow of western rivers through inequitable and unjustified utilization before they enter Pakistan, and yet it is done blatantly. Being party to the IWT, Pakistan has the right to know the gauge levels and regular inflow and outflow figures from hydropower projects but there are inadequacies in the data shared with Pakistan, exposing Pakistan to strategic risk, risk of floods, economic losses and loss of water.

However, when it comes to water shortage, Pakistan has its role to play as the water resources’ sustainability depends on storage capacity and yet millions cusecs of water is lost every year from its rivers into the sea because of not having enough reservoirs to store water. Water, once considered abundant is not a limitless resource; rather a commodity that we need to preserve or it will adversely affect the basic drinking needs of common citizens. Pakistan is already one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, a situation which is going to degrade into outright water scarcity owing to high population growth. If the water/sediment/salt system and levels, and climate change affects are not taken into consideration, they will become saline and scarce, from which there is no going back. Multiple studies have warned that by 2025 Pakistan will run out of water. If we are to avoid such a fate as Cape Town, South Africa the only recourse available is collective effort, mobilization and preventive measures to tackle water scarcity. Karachi is already facing acute water shortages and unhealthy contaminated water reaches the consumers, if at all, with a failing distribution and supply system. We must respond to this situation before it goes completely out of hand.

Our present and future is dependent on our actions. Indus Basin River System is currently vulnerable; therefore, there is an urgent need for concomitant overhaul of the water management framework of the country by developing additional infrastructure for storage, distribution and delivery to meet the demands. The responsibility of water management and conservation doesn’t rely solely on the state institutions; rather it is the responsibility that befalls every individual on day-to-day basis, in the face of rapidly dwindling water reserves.

The time to act is now!

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