Punjab on brink: From myths, misgovernance to reforms

For years, a troubling narrative has echoed through political corridors and public discourse, that Punjab, a state grappling with acute water stress, is unwilling to share its waters with Haryana and is irresponsibly letting Indian river water flow into Pakistan.

- Suresh Kumar

While politically expedient, this storyline is scientifically flawed and misleading. It obscures the hydrological realities, ecological fragility, and structural constraints shaped by outdated policies and international treaties.

Punjab is confronting an unprecedented water emergency. Once a key pillar of the Green Revolution, the state's agricultural success has come at an ecological cost. According to the Central Ground Water Board's 2022 report, 117 of Punjab's 150 administrative blocks are over-exploited, meaning groundwater extraction far exceeds natural recharge. In Sangrur, Patiala, and Bathinda districts, the water table is falling by over a metre a year, rendering shallow aquifers increasingly inaccessible.

Compounding this crisis is the decline in surface water availability. Punjab's three primary rivers, the Sutlej, Ravi, and Beas, have become largely seasonal, swelling only during the monsoon when irrigation demand is low. During the critical rabi and kharif cropping seasons, these rivers often run dry, forcing agriculture to rely on groundwater. The monsoon surge that does arrive often flows downstream, sometimes into Pakistan, not by political choice but due to insufficient storage infrastructure.

Storage paradox Punjab lacks the physical capacity to regulate or retain monsoon surpluses. This is the result not only of policy neglect but also of ecological and geographical constraints.