Groundwater regulation in case of overdraft: national groundwater policy implementation in north-west China

This article analyzes why China’s national groundwater policy is implemented in a fragmented way. The question is addressed through a comparative case-study analysis of groundwater management in north-west China. The analysis focuses on the institutional context in which local government agencies responsible for groundwater management operate. It was found that direct pressure from the central government promotes policy implementation. Yet, the distribution of surface and groundwater management responsibilities over different government agencies also influences the importance attached to groundwater regulation. In a conjunctive-use setting the integration of surface water and groundwater management facilitates effective groundwater regulation.     

Groundwater depletion and water extraction cost: some evidence from South India

From less than 6 million ha in 1950–51, groundwater-irrigated area increased to about 45 million ha in 2010–11, which is over 62% of India's net irrigated area. But the rapid development of groundwater has brought many negative outcomes for farmers. An attempt is made in this study to find out the losers and gainers of groundwater irrigation using survey data on 234 dug-well- and bore-well-owning farmers selected from two regions having different agro-economic settings in the Pudukkottai District of Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. The study shows that the dug-well- and bore-well-owning farmers had to incur a huge additional cost on account of modifications of wells in order to keep up with the falling water level. The modification cost alone accounted for about 33–48% of the real capital of bore-wells. The pumping cost of water is found to be higher for bore-wells fitted with submersible pump-sets as compared to deep bore-wells fitted with submersible pump-sets.     

Groundwater Situation in India: Problems and Perspective

Overexploitation of groundwater and intensive irrigation in major canal commands has posed serious problems for groundwater managers in India. Depletion of water tables, saltwater encroachment, drying of aquifers, groundwater pollution, water logging and salinity, etc. are major consequences of overexploitation and intensive irrigation. It has been reported that in many parts of the country the water table is declining at the rate of 1-2 m/year. At the same time in some canal commands, the water table rise is as high as 1 m/year. Deterioration in groundwater quality by various causes is another serious issue. Increased arsenic content in shallow aquifers of West Bengal reported recently has created panic among the groundwater users. Summed together, all these issues are expected to reduce the fresh water availability for irrigation, domestic and industrial uses. If this trend continues unchecked, India is going to face a major water crisis in the near future. Realizing this, the Government of India has initiated several protective and legislative measures to overcome the groundwater management-related problems but, due to the lack of awareness and political and administrative will, none of the measures has made any significant impact. This paper highlights the critical issues and examines the various schemes related to groundwater development and management.     

Groundwater pollution from agrochemicals — A dynamic model of externalities and policy options

A dynamic model of groundwater pollution from intensive agrochemical use is developed in this paper to capture the possible externalities and analyze various policy options in protecting groundwater resources. Four different paradigms are used to analyze the externalities involved in groundwater pollution due to excessive use of agrochemicals. The economic threshold levels of agrochemical contents in groundwater resources are derived and related to social discount rates. Conditions under which the nonchemical technologies will be adopted by individual farmers to protect groundwater resources are derived. Policy implications for water quality regulations are discussed based on model results. It is argued that meaningful regulation policies would involve internalizing possible externalities by taking into account costs of groundwater pollution to future generations.     

Adding an implementation phase to the framework for flood policy evolution: insights from South Africa

South African flood risk management policy changed radically after the end of apartheid (1994), with the Disaster Management Act of 2002 promoting a modern proactive approach. However, policy document research and two case studies show an implementation deficit. The ‘crises and catalysts’ theoretical framework used to analyze flood policy evolution needs more attention to implementation issues and the learning involved. Future flood policy change in South Africa or elsewhere should ensure that the process of learning is purposefully embedded within the structures, procedures and practices that are promoted to facilitate policy implementation, rather than being left to chance.     

现代农业灌溉减排模式的建立与应用

基于我国现代农业的经济发展模式,参照国内外相关研究成果,分析了现代农业面源污染的产生原因及其特征。从"源头控制、过程拦截、末端处理、灌溉回用、分区治理"等角度,提出了现代农业灌溉减排模式(MARIM)的构建方法,并通过环巢湖西北角的东大圩现代农业示范区工程进行实例验证。结果表明:MARIM模式可使上、中、下圩尾水中TN、TP的含量分别减少88.2%、89.6%、80.6%和89.1%、88.4%、82.6%,对现代农业面源污染控制与农业尾水再生利用具有显著的效果。     

Groundwater use and policy options for sustainable management in Southern Iraq

An important challenge facing the design of sustainable aquifer management plans is weak primary data on aquifer recharge and use patterns. Weak data limit the ability of policy makers to design efficient aquifer protection plans. The objectives of this article are (1) to estimate groundwater use patterns for an important food-producing region of southern Iraq, the Bahr Al-Najaf Basin; (2) to compare groundwater use patterns with the renewable groundwater supply; and (3) to describe a sustainable groundwater policy alternative to current use patterns. For this study, original data on groundwater pumping were secured for 2006–2011. The data show a pattern of unsustainable groundwater withdrawals. A policy intervention is described in which pumping permits could be assigned to groundwater users to promote sustainable use. Allowing or encouraging the permits to be transferable through trading to higher-valued uses could reduce the economic costs of protecting the aquifer while promoting its sustainable use.     

Evolution of Water Planning in New Mexico and Implications for Transboundary Groundwater Allocation

Abstract

Before 1983, the market allocated water in New Mexico under the prior-appropriation system; we prohibited export of groundwater to other states. We found, however, that the simple prohibition is unconstitutional, and that water can be withheld only if shown to be needed for the “public welfare.” Water planning began in 1987, to determine which waters (perhaps all) would be needed during the next 40 years. It has become clear that water planning has another value —the reconciliation of future supply with expected demands—which may provide more orderly reallocation than the market would, especially for aesthetic and environmental water uses that are not directly represented in the market. Our water planning seems to be supplanting the legal processes with negotiation, and to be shifting the emphasis from administration of water rights to management of real water. Diverse water-use interests within the planning regions in New Mexico are learning to negotiate their future water-management, and the 16 regions are beginning to interact with each other toward the same end. A strictly technical “wet-water” management plan that shows how the needs of all interests can be best met with the water and the capital available, and at least temporarily setting aside the legal issues, seems to be the best foundation for negotiation. The tentative settlement of a long, unfruitful legal struggle over the Pecos River is a case in point. The same principal seems promising for dealing with transboundary groundwater allocation on a larger scale.     

Water and Energy Linkages for Groundwater Exploitation: A Case Study of Gujarat State,India

Water and energy, two important resources for human development, have inextricable inter-linkages between them. Their complementarity, a blessing otherwise, causes a vicious circle in a complex situation like the present case study of Gujarat state, India. This paper analyses the supply-demand situation of both sectors for a state that is primarily agrarian but also with a high industrial growth rate. Due to inequitable distribution of surface water, recurrent droughts and an ever-increasing demand trend, groundwater (a major source in the state) has been over-exploited in many parts, leading to 'water mining' with worsening water quality. With more than 40% energy consumed for extracting groundwater, this has had a serious impact on the energy balance. The paper brings forth the energy requirements to satisfy the water needs and the water requirements for the generation of energy. Finally, the feasible options available to meet the crisis, ranging from the development of mega projects like Sardar Sarovar and Kalpasar to micro water harvesting structures, water pricing and consumer training, etc., are reviewed.     

Groundwater Protection Using Vulnerability Maps and Wellhead Protection Area (WHPA): A Case Study in Mexico

The need to protect groundwater resources against quality deterioration due to anthropogenic activities is unquestionable. The concept of aquifer pollution vulnerability maps and of wellhead protection areas (WHPA) as protection tools is not new; however, in spite of the elapsed time, their use has been increased as a result of the increase in economic development—and everything that this entails—and the increase in prohibitive costs of treating contaminated water or of the decontamination of aquifers. The study’s objective was to establish an integrated method that defines, first of all, the areas of highest vulnerability in the aquifer, and second, within these areas, the wells that most urgently need protection. To identify these wells, additional criteria were taken, such as well constructive data, pumped volume, and the region’s socioeconomic characteristics (social exclusion index). Once the wells were ranked, several of them were chosen as a pilot study to compare different methods for the delineation of WHPA based on calculated fixed radius and analytical methods and, this way, identify which method or methods best adapt to the characteristics of the study area. The Minkin analytical method proved to offer the best results since it protects well on both sides and achieves a balance in the well’s upgradient distances. It is also worth mentioning that the delimitation of the WHPAs in the study area was limited in respect to hydrogeologic and technical data.     

Optimized Sustainable Groundwater Extraction Management: General Approach and Application to the City of Lucknow, India

In rapidly developing urban areas of emerging countries, increased water demand has led to enormous groundwater withdrawal, calling out for sustainable groundwater management. We suggest implementing a sustainable pumping rate concept based on numerical modeling of the managed aquifer. Sustainability is achieved by constraints regarding (1) a minimum groundwater discharge rate to gaining rivers (ecological constraint) and (2) a maximum drawdown along the city boundaries (social constraints) to prevent excessive groundwater depletion in the neighboring peri-urban and rural areas. The total groundwater extraction is maximized subject to these constraints, leading to specific extraction patterns throughout the city, depending upon the values set for the constraints. The optimization is performed by linear programming. For a given extraction rate, the two constraints can be traded off by the groundwater manager, causing different wells to be activated or deactivated. We demonstrate the applicability of the methodology by the example of the city of Lucknow, India, but it can be transferred to other cities facing conflicts of managing groundwater resources.     

Managing Groundwater in Hard-rock Areas through Agro-well Design and Development

Water shortage in the dry season is a major problem facing agriculture in the dry and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka. Large diameter wells (agro-wells) have been introduced to use the groundwater as a supplement to rainfall. The underlying crystalline hard-rock formations have very low storage and transmissivity, which limit the groundwater resource. The haphazard development of agro-wells may seriously threaten sustainable groundwater use in the future. Based on field studies and a groundwater hydrological model, this paper explains a methodology for determining the dimensions of agro-wells that limit a farmer to abstracting no more than the volume of water recharged under his/her land. This methodology can be used to regulate groundwater in hard-rock aquifers by identifying the safe volume of water that can be abstracted, establishing the optimum well dimensions for constructing a new well, and matching crop-water requirements to the abstractable volume of water. Farmers themselves can regulate groundwater resources to limit exploitation to equal their entitlement.     

Modeling runoff from an agricultural watershed of western catchment of Chilika lake through ArcSWAT

Chilika lake is the biggest lagoon in the Indian Eastern coast and is a source of livelihood for peoples of the coastal region surrounding it mainly through fisheries. However, the deposition of sediments in the lake carried through runoff water from its drainage basins may alter this wetland ecosystem in future. Implementation of appropriate soil water conservation measures may reduce the sediment load in runoff water and thus may protect this lagoon ecosystem. Keeping in view these concerns, runoff water from a selected watershed of western catchment of Chilika lagoon was modeled through ArcSWAT with a purpose to estimate future runoff potential from western catchment. Effective hydraulic conductivity of main channel, base flow alpha factor, curve number corresponding to antecedent moisture content II, and roughness coefficient of main channel were found most sensitive parameters in decreasing order. Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of predicted monthly runoff was 0.72 and 0.88 during calibration and validation period, respectively whereas root mean squared error of predicted monthly runoff was 54.5 and 66.1 mm, respectively. Modeling results indicated that about 60% of rainfall is partitioned to runoff water, which carry significant amount of sediment load and contributes to Chilika lake.     

Sustainable Development through Groundwater Management: A Case Study on the Barind Tract

Since its birth in 1985, the Barind Multi-purpose Development Project (BMDP) has become a model of a sustainable rural development project in Bangladesh. The project maintains technical soundness by ensuring a high level of water use efficiency and a minimum well spacing. The project runs on full operating and maintenance cost recovery basis, which is achieved through an innovative prepaid water coupon system and the associated command area development scheme. Its governance structure is democratic and participatory. The project has several environmental enhancement programmes such as water conservation, homestead and social forestry, promotion of integrated pest control, and farmers' training. In addition, it has adopted an integrated planning approach that incorporates extending rural electrification, building rural infrastructure and an array of other support programmes. As a result, the BMDP has emerged as a model of sustainable groundwater-based rural development initiative in Bangladesh.     

The nexus as a political commodity: agricultural development,water policy and elite rivalry in Egypt

Thinking of the interconnections between water, food, energy and climate is nothing new in the Nile Basin; it has long been anchored in political struggles. For 200 years, Egypt's political economy has been defined by water use patterns and food security strategies that debunk the technocratic myth that rapid growth, interaction with global markets and technological modernization eliminate poor governance practices and allocative inefficiencies. In contrast, the prism of the nexus as a political commodity illuminates one of modern Egypt's most consequential dialectics: the interaction between the very particular nexus at the heart of the country's political economy, forged through factional strife and sustained by outside discourses and interests, and the economic and ecological ravages of this elite politics. Egyptian history serves as a warning. Today's conversation needs to be deconstructed in terms of how different forms of interconnectivity between water, energy and food are produced and experienced by different social groups. It reminds us to take interconnections not as given, but rather as contested and contestable outcomes from which opportunities for adaptation and transformation do not naturally emerge, but need to be struggled for.     

Impacts of agricultural policy on irrigation water demand: a case study of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's groundwater resources have been heavily over-exploited to achieve food self-sufficiency. The country enacted a new agricultural policy that discourages the cultivation of wheat and encourages that of vegetables and fruits. This has produced significant reductions in irrigation water demand as well as food self-sufficiency. This paper reviews the performance of the Saudi agricultural sector and presents four scenarios forecasting the new policy's long-term impacts on the use of water for agriculture. The findings show that the new policy does not support sustainable utilization of groundwater resources. Additional policy modifications are needed to optimize the combination of import and domestic production of agricultural products based on a sustainable water utilization strategy.     

Opportunities for bipartisanship: Comparing water and energy policy in the Great Lakes region

The Great Lakes contain most of the United States’ surface freshwater and provide deep personal and economic connections for the residents of the region. These connections create an opportunity for bipartisanship in environmental policies with the potential to permeate energy policies. To explore that possibility, this paper examines how party affiliation affects support for water policy and energy policy in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Data from the Great Lakes Region Public Opinion Survey asked 696 Republicans, Independents, and Democrats from the Great Lakes region to respond to a range of environmental policy prompts. Responses to the policy prompts are grouped into four components: Water Quality, Water Diversions, Traditional Fuels, and Renewables. The results find that there is bipartisan support for the Water Quality and Water Diversions components. Energy policies do not receive the same bipartisan support, with Democrats and Independents having more support for the Renewables component while Republicans have more support for the Traditional Fuels component. However, when the fuel source is tied to its pollutants of the Great Lakes, then reactions to that fuel source receive a bipartisan response. The results of this research suggest that embedding water policy in energy policy may allow those policies to receive more bipartisan support. Combining water policy and energy policy can depolarize some of the politics surrounding environmental policy broadly.     

Agricultural Groundwater Management in Andhra Pradesh,India: A Focus on Free Electricity Policy and its Reform

The impact of the free electricity policy on agriculture in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), India, is the main focus of this work. It is assumed that this policy has a very high political currency and there is, therefore, a difficultly in recalling it in the short-term. In this context, plausible reforms to this policy are explored with an objective to weed out the inefficiencies in this subsidy regime in the context of groundwater extraction and utilization. These reforms are aimed at reducing the ambit of beneficiaries of this subsidy based on their affordability and increasing the water productivity of agriculture in the state. Some examples exclude large farmers from this policy, offering free electricity conditional upon adopting the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) or adopting micro-irrigation or shifting cropping patterns. These alternate policies are evaluated based on the impact on groundwater extraction, fiscal costs, equity, political feasibility, issues in implementation etc. Finally, it is suggested that the government offers free electricity conditional upon adopting water-efficient cropping practices such as the SRI as a short-term step for increasing the effectiveness of this policy and mitigating its adverse impact on groundwater extraction.     

Inland waterways for transportation of agricultural,industrial and energy products

This paper examines the use of inland waterways throughout the world, particularly for the transportation of agricultural, industrial and energy products. It is found that there are great variations in their importance from one country to another. This discrepancy can be explained to a certain extent by geographical conditions, but lack of realization of the potential benefits to the national economies also plays an important role. Some countries — especially the oil‐importing developing countries — are now making determined efforts to expand and modernize their waterways transportation systems, but generally there is a lack of national master plans for transportation, including inland waterways, so their development is still taking place on a piecemeal basis.