9. Managing Pakistan’s Groundwater

To ensure water security and sustainability, Pakistan’s policymakers must keep groundwater extractions and stock at reasonable levels. How do policymakers currently manage groundwater? Why have they struggled so far? What are some of the tools that they can harness to improve groundwater allocation? By surveying existing data and literature on Pakistan’s groundwater, I address these questions, identifying the challenges that the country faces in managing groundwater and explaining policy instruments that could tackle these challenges. The chapter serves as a guide for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in contextualizing Pakistan’s groundwater issues and understanding policy prescriptions that incentivize welfare-enhancing extractions.