Possible Worlds in The Indus River Basin: Navigating Plural Imaginaries Through Historical Geography, Regional Water Planning, and Design

Keywords: Indus river basin, possible worlds, environmental imaginaries, historical geography, water resources
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores water challenges in the Indus River basin, and the plural imaginaries theme of this
session, through the lens of possible worlds theory, and the methods of historical geography, regional
water planning, and design. It originated in the wake of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan in 2022, which affected 33 million people, with a conference challenge to prepare a paper on “making the impossible, possible.” That charge led to an exploration of possible worlds theories as they have developed in geography (e.g., in Gilbert F. White’s “Range of Choice” concept; David Harvey’s Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference; Daanish Mustafa’s Water Resource Management in a Vulnerable World: The Hydro-Hazardscapes of Climate Change; and others). Possible worlds imaginaries are linked in turn with the modal logics of possibility, necessity, and normativity, which resonate with the plural strands of water ethics in South Asia and river basin planning in the Indus. I then show how methods of historical geography that help (re)construct these plural imaginaries are coupled with projective methods of regional water planning, and environmental design that broaden the range of choice and realize future possibilities.