Conflict in South Asia: Water Scarcity, Conservation, and Politics
Publisher: Pakistan Horizon
Author(s): Reumah Suhail
Date: 2023
Topics: Assessment, Conflict Causes, Conflict Prevention, Cooperation, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan
This paper analyses the water dilemma in South Asia. The first part looks at water availability in the region followed by an analysis of neighbourly constraints over water sharing. There is a review on the effectiveness of regional water treaties, especially focusing on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), followed by a deliberation of the productivity or lack of regional treaties. There is a significant flip to the situation, where governments have underperformed to the looming water crisis, recommended measures to overcome such negligence is examined, taking into account the relevance of dams, including alternative solutions to large dams. Pakistan is primarily the focus of such options, considering it has the most critical water severity statistics but implementation is not restricted to this nuclear state, and lastly an analysis is drawn of whether regional rivalry is the underlying cause of the existing water concerns.