Pakistan, for reasons of its own, has decided to raise water as a major new issue with India. This is an ominous development, perhaps the most ominous ever in the troubled history of the relations between the two countries. If the Kashmir issue were to be miraculously resolved tomorrow, water will be the new core issue.
This paper will first provide a synoptic account of the problems relating to water; from that diagnostic statement it will proceed to an adumbration of the responses needed and the changes in water policy that they call for; and it will then outline the water law reform that this requires.
