If the north lacks water, why does Puntland have the best access to improved sanitised water?
I don't want to get into the details but both you and me know the reason behind that.
The north doesn't have the water capacity to supply 10 million+ people... the south does.
The fastest way the north will develop is if it's citizens become richer.
If we split and duplicate all the investments throughout each state then no region will develop fast enough.
However a single region would give us more value for every dollar invested and we'd be able to grow faster as a whole.
Every successful developed country took that route.