ABSTRACT
The use and management of water in South Asia has long been discursively constructed as an issue of scarcity. Just as significantly, the issue of water scarcity and its imbrication with water security is a significant domestic political issue in both countries. While acknowledging that these international and intra-national disputes clearly point to a situation where water scarcity has led to political contestation. The Indus Basin is an important example of how water scarcity creates and intensifies development challenges for a range of people. The logic of water scarcity and the politics of water allocation come into stark relief, since the Inter Linking of Rivers scheme is premised upon an assessment of which parts of the country are 'water deficit' and which are 'water surplus'. The headline figures on water scarcity cannot capture this complexity unless they are disaggregated on the basis of these social categories.
