The question of water scarcity

India’s recent suspension of the Indus Water Treaty marks a grave turning point in regional politics and underscores a critical imperative for Pakistan: to resolve its internal political squabbles with utmost urgency. At a time when external pressures threaten to compromise access to shared water resources, domestic discord, such as the infighting over the Cholistan canal project, only deepened Pakistan’s vulnerability. The nation can ill afford to be divided over water policy when the very lifeline of its people is at stake as a matter of national survival. It’s a welcome relief that, following the meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto, the government has paused canal construction pending consensus in the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The Cholistan canal project sparked an unnecessary political row, distracting from Pakistan’s real existential threats: a looming water crisis, crumbling irrigation systems, and escalating climate change. Ironically, experts question the logic of building canals in a desert — an impractical and unsustainable venture.