Politics of water

Water may put out fire, but is itself a burning issue. Experts are sounding alarm over Pakistan's water situation where per capita water availability - already low at just above 1000 cubic meters per annum - is estimated to reduce significantly over the next decade due to the deadly-combine of low water flows and a rising population. World Bank has already classified Pakistan as a water-stressed country.
Water is a technical subject, but it seems immersed in politics at every level. There is an argument that if you get the politics right, water issues - in both domains of water resource development and water management - will start resolving themselves.
First are the nation-level issues. Lower riparian areas (in Sindh and Balochistan) are naturally apprehensive of upper riparian areas (Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) using more water than is mandated under official rules. But Pakistan's longtime divisive political culture (e.g. Punjab versus Sindh) gives a provincial, and oftentimes ethnic, flavour to water disputes.
Then within a province, means of political convenience could be found in directing water flows to "favoured" districts or villages at the expense of the others. Even within a city, water management is sometimes prone to political compulsions, which give rise to some areas receiving disproportionately high amount of water. Similarly, irrigation channel development is also vulnerable to political influences.
Third is the regional-level politics that surrounds water. Once hailed as a building block towards subcontinent peace, the Indus Water Treaty has unfortunately been made into a point of contention between archrivals India and Pakistan. Pakistan has been fighting India in international courts over the latters dam buildups in border areas which the former fears could slow down or block its agreed water flows.
India has used the "water management" argument against Pakistan rather successfully. After all, Pakistan does not productively use a lot of water it receives every year: Nearly 15 percent of the roughly 145 million acre feet (maf) available water is wasted every year. The countrys water storage capacity has now reduced to around 8 percent of annual flows.
Globally, water management is a sensitive issue. Economic value of water is estimated at between $1 billion and $2 billion per maf, and Pakistan is running tens of billions dollars worth of water losses every year. Pakistans position will remain week till storage capacity is beefed up.
Clearly, Pakistan needs to build more dams, and soon. Dams will help in water storage, floods mitigation, and cheap electricity production (hydropower). Its straightforward! But politics stops. The fact that even two military strongmen (Zia and Musharraf) couldn't go ahead and build any large dam, leave alone Kalabagh, shows how politically-inconvenient the dam issue is. The two gentlemen ruled for two decades between them, but even that stability couldn't address the issue.
Governments, democratic and autocratic, have both been fixated on achieving short-term benefits that cost later. Dams require a punishingly high development spend, one which Pakistani governments have found hard to apportion over their mandated terms. Uncertain tenures, which are the norm for Pakistani governments, then, drive short-term fixes, which have meant doing nothing on the dam front. The current government is showing seriousness, but it will require a lot of patience to follow through on the projects it has approved.
But the country is on its way to be a water-scarce country. Unlike other resources, water riots can be deadly, because water means life, it means survival. Better get the politics right and do something about the issues at hand. Otherwise, the country, and by extension the region, may be headed towards a crisis of catastrophic proportions after 2025.