Water Sharing Issues in Pakistan: Impacts on Inter-Provincial Relations

The burgeoning conflict over the water sharing is now a global phenomenon. Many international treaties, laws and water management models are available to settle down the water sharing issues among the states like Absolute Territorial Sovereignty and the Upper Riparian, Absolute Territorial Integrity and the Lower Riparian and Mediated Strategy of Restricted Integrity. Inter-provincial water sharing issue in Pakistan is a classic example of upstream–downstream rivalry which has been traced back from the pre-partition history of Pakistan. Lower riparian province Sindh has a historical conflict with upper riparian province Punjab, Balochistan being lower riparian has water conflicts with Sindh, and KPK has water sharing issue with Punjab. The constitution has also empowered the existing institutions like CCI and IRSA and established several new rules for the water management among provinces. Currently, it has become the issue of federation and has disturbed the provincial harmony and national integration.