Nusrat Yaqoob
PAKISTAN’S water scarcity is now a national emergency, yet the governance framework remains trapped in fragmented federalism.
Driven by unique geospatial and institutional realities, each of the four provinces pursues its own model of integrated water resource management (IWRM). This lack of a unanimous approach is perhaps inevitable given the diversity of the Indus Basin, but the resulting inefficiency is pushing the country toward a critical precipice. By 2050, Sindh may face zero water coverage downstream of the Kotri Barrage during the crucial Rabi season, with overall scarcity hitting 30% in the provinces, severely impacting areas like the desert feeder. Southern Punjab is also projected to suffer immensely due to groundwater depletion and inefficient surface water distribution. Perennial inter-provincial disputes over water sharing will further aggravate, while climate change acts as the ultimate amplifier, making erratic flows and flash droughts the new normal.
Amid these crises, provincial discourse often fixates on technical panaceas, including IoT (Internet of Things) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools. Provinces are commendably advancing pilot projects. In Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, initiatives like the Water Resource Accountability Program (WRAP) utilize real-time soil moisture sensors to optimize canal operations and irrigation scheduling. Urban WASA authorities deploy sensors for leak detection and water quality monitoring. But the real question is not technology adoption at the controls level; it is about information absorption at the grassroots. Water productivity is ultimately ensured at the wara (water-courses) by the farmer. If sophisticated, real-time data remains inaccessible, unintelligible, or non-actionable for water user associations and farmers, technological investment becomes largely redundant. The true governance challenge lies in closing this chasm, a failure rooted in poor institutional outreach, lack of technical training, and deep-seated public distrust in the distribution system.
To avert systemic water collapse, Pakistan must enact bold institutional reforms prioritizing transparency, empowerment, and cooperation. IRSA needs to act as a regulator, not just an arbitrator. The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) must evolve from a contentious arbitrator of the 1991 water apportionment accord to a politically neutral regulatory and supervisory body. Its technical advice on water releases and transparent data sharing must supersede provincial irrigation departments to enforce accountability. Crucially, the tradition of rotating the Chairman’s Office among provinces, as mandated by the IRSA Act of 1992, must be upheld and institutionalized for longer, stable terms. Recent attempts to centralize chairmanship under federal appointment risk undermining inter-provincial equality and trust.
Trust is the currency of cooperation and requires investment in real-time transparency and infrastructure. A national mandate is needed for auditable telemetry systems at all inter-provincial control points, barrages, and headworks, with data instantly available to all provinces. Transparency must be paired with urgent infrastructural improvements, focusing on lining vulnerable main canals and distributaries, particularly in scarcity-hit regions of Southern Punjab and Sindh, to reduce colossal conveyance losses that fuel disputes and scarcity.
Finally, provinces must move beyond zero-sum politics of water allocation and institutionalize technical cooperation. A permanent multi-provincial working group should focus not on disputes but on joint solutions: climate change adaptation strategies, shared IWRM best practices, and a unified strategy for grassroots technology absorption. Technology only shows the data; the solution lies in the hands of people and the institutions that govern the flow. Pakistan must look beyond technology and urgently fix the broken institutional spine that determines how every drop is managed and counted.
—The writer occasionally contributes.
