The Political Economy of Water

Abstract

The political economy of Pakistan’s water is a complex interplay of interests that in the modern era, beginning in the nineteenth century, emerged from within the context of colonialism. The foundation of the irrigated economy that was laid during British rule privileged particular norms of water control that, to large extents, persist and shape current policies. Given the rising and changing demands on the uses of water that have naturally arisen through the passage of time, coupled with a rapidly changing climate, prevailing water policy and allocation are hard-pressed to meet evolving societal, environmental, and economic goals. Particular and longstanding challenges arise from the political economy of interprovincial water-sharing and are further compounded by the changing geopolitics of transnational infrastructure finance within the prevailing narrative that privileges increasing supply over reducing or managing demand. Within and across sectors, a host of challenges arise from the failure to value water for its proper and integrated environmental, social, economic, and political uses. Meanwhile, the growing role of the private sector, in areas such as commercial groundwater extraction for drinking water as well as in beverage and industrial production more broadly that significantly impair water quality and the environment, remains a largely under-governed space. Since the British era, agriculture remains the foundation of the economy and with rising demands from a growing population, food and commodity security for both crops and dairy and livestock production within the context of global food production and trade flows have become ever more complex. These forces are playing out within the context of global climate change and evolving norms of water storage that take into account methane emissions from large dams as part of international climate pledges, further compounding Pakistan’s overall water, food and energy security goals. An improved understanding of local contexts as they interact with global trends will need to be developed to improve Pakistan’s political economy of water.

Water is the petroleum for the next century.

—Goldman Sachs Global Investment Report, 2008