International responses to Pakistan’s water crisis: opportunities and challenges

Pakistan faces a multidimensional water crisis that claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year. This paper examines the potentials for the international community to help Pakistan to overcome this crisis, and makes recommendations to both the Pakistani government and other interested parties.

The document argues that the root causes of the crisis are circumstantial, which are linked to poor water-resource management policies, and structural, tied to factors deeply ingrained in politics and society. To resolve the crisis, both types of cause will need to be tackled, and the international community can play an invaluable role in providing technology and funding for water-saving irrigation. Likewise, it can help Pakistanis manage their limited water resources more efficiently by providing assistance for alternative water-based livelihood projects and forums for informational exchanges.

The paper makes the following recommendations:

• international responses to Pakistan’s water crisis should be seen as complements to, not substitutions for, indigenous efforts
• while the international community can help mitigate the effects of the underlying structural drivers, Pakistan itself must take the ultimate steps to eliminate them
• aid provision must be generous enough to meet Pakistan’s needs but modest enough to respect the country’s limited absorptive capacities
• aid provision should emphasise the restoration of infrastructure and distribution systems, and be channelled through both government agencies and civil society
• to be effective, international responses should be mindful of indigenous success stories and the factors that bring about that success
• the international community must recognise the limits of responding to the deep-seated causes of Pakistan’s water crisis.