India, Sept. 29 -- The recent floods in Punjab were more than a natural disaster. They were a blunt reminder that our water management is broken. Fields lay submerged, families displaced, livelihoods ruined. But behind the tragedy lies a deeper question: Why do Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan still treat rivers as political property when rivers obey only geography and gravity?

We have drawn borders around water, but water has refused to listen. The result is familiar: Long-standing disagreements over canals, contamination of our rivers from unchecked effluents, falling water tables across Punjab, and uncoordinated release of dam waters that often causes damage downstream. Instead of cooperation, we get ...