In the surge of healing? The case of Indus Basin Rabail Gul Urban Studies Master’s Thesis (Two-year master) 30 credits Spring 2017 Supervisor: Guy Baeten Site of River Ravi – Branching from Indus Basin (Malik, 2014) Acknowledgement The portrayal of water security-scarcity nexus could not be possible without the help of work from Mustafa. Weaving the real and ideal world this dissertation greatly benefited from the comments provided by Carina Listerborn and Maria Persdotter during the thought process. The critical analysis of case studies has been enriched with data and evidence provided by Muhammad Javed and Kashif Javed since the beginning. They also helped in organizing the interviews from professionals which proved an immense assistance. An insight of the official documents has also been provided by Ayesha Shoib which motivated the methods of analyzing the whole phenomenon. This paper would be hardly possible without the moral support of my parents Misbah Abid and Abid Ghafoor. List of Selected Abbreviations AK Azad Kashmir BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CM Cubic Meters CPEC China Pakistan Economic Corridor FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation GDP Gross Domestic Product HKH Hindu Kush Himalayan IBIS Indus Basin Irrigation System IRS Indus River System IRSA Indus River System Authority IWRM Integrated water resources management IWT Indus Waters Treaty J&K Jammu and Kashmir LoC Line of Cntrol LDA Lahore Development Authority MCM Million Cubic Meters MR Marala Ravi SCARPs Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects UIB Upper Indus Basin UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNSC United Nations Security Council USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics WAPDA Water and Power Development Authority WB World Bank WWC World Water Council Table of Contents Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 1.1 The Puzzle ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Water Security in South Asia......................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research Aims and Questions ....................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Importance of Research ................................................................................................................ 7 1.5 Layout ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2: Background ................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 History and Demography of Indus Basin ....................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Geography of the Region and Distribution of Water Resources ................................................. 9 2.1.2 Demographic Characteristics ..................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Why the Water Resources of the Indus Basin Are Important to the Co-riparian States ............ 11 2.2.1 Irrigation Waters ........................................................................................................................ 11 2.2.2 Hydroelectric Power .................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 The Kashmir Dispute ................................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Importance of Indus Basin in the World ..................................................................................... 16 Chapter 3: Methodology and Research Approach ...................................................................................... 18 3.1 Methodology Overview .............................................................................................................. 18 3.2 Method of Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 18 3.3 Method of Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 19 3.3.1 Applying Case Studies ......................................................................................................... 19 3.3.2 Choice of Case Studies ........................................................................................................ 19 3.4 Scope and Limitations ................................................................................................................. 19 Chapter 4: Theories and concepts .............................................................................................................. 21 4.1 Urban Political Ecology ............................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Urban Political Ecology and Scale ............................................................................................... 22 4.3 Waterscapes and Political Ecology .............................................................................................. 23 Chapter 5: Presentation of Object of Study ................................................................................................ 24 5.1 Indus Basin .................................................................................................................................. 24 5.2 River Ravi..................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 6: Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 29 6.1 Water as a Tool of Politics ........................................................................................................... 29 6.2 Effects of Water Politics on the Urban Settlements ................................................................... 30 6.3 Landownership and Water Commodification ............................................................................. 31 6.4 Surge of Healing? ........................................................................................................................ 33 Chapter 7: Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 8: Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 38 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 39 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 45 Article XII of IWT ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Questionnaire for Interviewee................................................................................................................ 45 Summary Water being a vital resource and an inevitable ingredient for the existence and sustenance of life drew the attention of human settlements from the beginning. Nearly all human activities i.e. commerce, sanitation and transportation get influenced by water in one way or the other. Since water resources are continuously depleting due to myriad problems, so water sharing is also becoming a conflicting point between nations. Although the debate of saving water draws its trajectory from 1980’s however, the link between water and security has emerged only in the post-Cold War scholarly debate about the scope of the security concept itself. To understand the concept of water security in the South Asian context the case study of Indus basin is chosen in this dissertation. Shared by four riparian states i.e. China, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, the Indus basin serves as a trans-boundary water resource from ages. But unfortunately the Indus basin lies in a part of the world where intense distrust, chronic conflict, and bitterly contentious water policies have a long history too. Stagnant or decreasing agricultural productivity, increasing dependence on groundwater, growing population, high risk of climatic variability, enhancing industrialization, and unplanned and un-regularized urban growth are the major challenges which are gnawing the Indus basin. However the issue of water security and scarcity does not merely dependent on the absolute (or physical) availability of a natural resource. But water insecurity at the individual and regional scales is as much about political and social construction in this context. Drawing on insights from the interdisciplinary tradition of political ecology, here the issues pertaining to Indus basin are restricted to the realms of two riparian states only, i.e. India and Pakistan. Although the geographical setting of the Indus River system has facilitated the partitioning of the