Scale Issues in Design and Implementation of the Water Apportionment Accord in the Indus Basin

Abstract

The 1991 Water Apportionment Accord (WAA) is an extraordinary example of subnational water allocation albeit not a perfect one. It established access and allocation of waters from the Indus River among the four provinces of Pakistan through finding political solutions to inter-provincial conflicts. However, the scale of its implementation remains subnational, creating several issues for the efficacy of the WAA. Using the analytical frame of scale–descale–rescale (SDR), this paper examines WAA by descaling its design and implementation at four scales: national, subnational, river basin and sub-river basin. Certain scale-driven interactions emerge between the provinces and the federal government that contribute to technical and institutional issues which, when seen from a scale lens, point to key challenges why WAA objectives are not fully achieved. A rescaling to the Indus River Basin shows an interconnected pattern of politics of scales leading to persisting conflicts that hinder planning and participation.

Keywords

• Scale
• Transboundary Water Governance
• Water Apportionment Accord
• Scale-Descale-Rescale
• Indus River Basin

Supporting Institution

Tufts University

Project Number

Water Diplomacy Program

Thanks

This research is partially supported by a grant from the US National Science Foundation (Water Diplomacy IGERT NSF 0966093). The author is grateful for earlier review and comments by colleagues in the Water Diplomacy group.

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