Since India announced that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, debate in Pakistan has focused overwhelmingly on river flows, dams, and the future of one of the world's most successful water-sharing agreements. Yet beneath this debate lies an ignored crisis. Pakistan's greatest water challenge increasingly lies not in the rivers crossing its borders but in the groundwater beneath its fields.

The IWT governs the surface waters of the Indus basin and contains no framework for groundwater. Yet groundwater has become the backbone of Pakistan's agriculture. As canal supplies have become less reliable, millions of farmers have turned to tube-wells for irrigation. Across much of Punjab and Balochistan, however, aquifers are being depleted because water is being extracted far faster than it is naturally replenished.

The current debate risks creating the impression that Pakistan's long-term water security depends primarily on securing river flows. It does not. Water security depends equally on how........

© The Express Tribune