World Water Day

World Water Day, which is celebrated every year on March 22, is about taking action to tackle the water crisis. At present, there are over 663 million people in the world living without a safe water supply close to home. These people spend countless hours in queues, or trek to distant sources to fetch water. Sometimes they are left with no other option than to use contaminated water. It is important to mention that the period between 2005 and 2015 was declared the decade of water cooperation by the UN and concepts of transboundary water collaboration, shared waters and shared responsibilities were initiated. Co-riparian states were asked to use this, so that natural resources could be used for the common good and for development, and not for conflicts and wars. Pakistan and India are among 145 countries which share common international basins.

Decrease in water quality, climate change, migration, population influx and several other factors have influenced both the riparian states to develop water cooperation mechanisms to meet their challenges. Ironically, India is currently constructing both the projects along with mega storages of water on Pakistani rivers with the designs which are completely breaching the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. To conclude, intention of India was not always in favor of Pakistan and they always tried to exploit Pakistan and destruct its economy by various instruments and the water dispute was also a part of it. India is doing its best to overturn the treaty, but Pakistan must not fall into the Indian trap and should follow a two-pronged strategy to deal with the issue.

Anza Kanwal

Rawalpindi