Groundwater Crisis: A Crisis of Governance?

Abstract

This chapter delves into Pakistan’s groundwater situation by engaging in a historical case study of the province of Punjab from the colonial to the contemporary period. Drawing on archival research, document analysis and interviews conducted as a part of the author’s doctoral research, Punjab’s groundwater crisis is analysed to make two key arguments. First, despite Punjab’s endowment of surface water, the province is heavily dependent on groundwater for meeting its agricultural, domestic and industrial water demand. Second, in contrast to a conventional narrative that characterises Pakistan’s groundwater crisis as one arising from the absence of groundwater governance, this chapter argues that the crisis was brought about by the very nature of groundwater governance in this region over time. Through a careful historical analysis of the techniques of groundwater governance in colonial, post-colonial and contemporary Punjab, the chapter highlights the strategic importance of groundwater to achieve Pakistan’s development goals, and in turn how this has shaped the nation’s approach towards groundwater use and management over time. The paper concludes that the nature of groundwater governance in Pakistan over time has been focused on groundwater exploitation for agricultural expansion and economic development, with little emphasis on sustainable management of the resource.