Pakistan, Oct. 29 -- On Wednesday, the Planning Commission put a price tag of nearly $18 billion on improving Pakistan's water infrastructure, even as the World Bank expressed dissatisfaction with progress on a major hydropower and renewable energy project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The contrast is hard to miss. Islamabad wants to raise water-use efficiency from 40 to 70 per cent by 2029, while a scheme approved six years ago remains bogged down in delays and poor disbursements. Ambitious targets are all very well, but the country has a habit of letting good intentions run aground.

The World Bank-backed programme was originally estimated to cost $ 727 million, with the 88MW Gabral-Kalam hydropower plant among its principal investments. Yet o...