THE country is caught in a crisis where there too much water at the wrong time and too little when it is most needed. The response remains reactive — managing emergencies instead of building resilience against mounting water insecurity. A new report, Water, Climate and Diplomacy: Securing Pakistan’s Indus Basin Future, has rightly called for a national water security policy. The challenge, it says, extends beyond managing rivers and reservoirs. Climate change is altering the hydrological cycle itself. Erratic rainfall, accelerated glacier melt and prolonged droughts are making historical assumptions about water availability unreliable. Pakistan must now stop treating floods, droughts, water scarcity and climate change as separate policy problems. Instead, these should be seen as a single national security challenge.

The report argues that extreme rainfall, inadequate storage, ageing irrigation infrastructure, poor groundwater governance and weak flood preparedness are together increasing Pakistan’s vulnerability and exposing weaknesses in water management. The policy scope should be extended to include the urban dimension, which also needs urgent attention. Cities now routinely face inundation after rainfall because of unplanned expansion, encroachments on natural waterways, inadequate storm-water systems and the loss of open spaces. A national water policy must strengthen urban drainage, protect waterways, enforce land-use rules and promote climate-resilient infrastructure. Agriculture, too, presents a critical challenge, consuming most of the country’s freshwater. Water security ultimately depends on producing more food with less water. This requires a shift from wasteful irrigation towards precision and climate-smart agriculture, improved crop choices, modern irrigation technologies, better water pricing and stronger incentives for conservation. Groundwater is a particularly urgent issue. Unchecked extraction is turning the water crisis into a catastrophe, with aquifers in many areas being depleted faster than they can recharge while pollution further reduces usable supplies. That said, Pakistan’s water and economic security largely hinges on smooth implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty, which has been illegally suspended by India. The country needs sustained global engagement for reversion of this arbitrary action. A national water security policy must therefore integrate water management, agriculture, urban planning, climate resilience and water diplomacy into a single strategy. The cost of reactive policymaking will only rise as climate pressures intensify.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2026