Taming the Anarchy? Groundwater Governance in South Asia
Abstract
Irrigation has always been central to life and society in the plains of South Asia. According to Alfred Deakin, a three-time Australian prime minister and an irrigation enthusiast of early 20th century who toured India in 1890, the region had 12 million hectares (ha) of irrigated land compared with 3 million ha in the United States, 2 million ha in Egypt, 1.5 million ha in Italy and a few hundred thousand ha each in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), France, Spain, and Victoria (Australia) (The Age 1891). Although Egypt and Sri Lanka are better known as hydraulic civilizations, a century ago British India was the world’s irrigation champion.
During the past 40 years, however, much of what was British India has witnessed more development in irrigation than in the preceding two centuries. Available statistics—better today than a hundred years ago—suggest that in 2002, the world had some 300 million ha under irrigation, and of these, more than 90 million ha was in today’s India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh—lands that were the bulk of British India before 1947.
This book is about the growing anarchy in South Asia’s irrigation economy. From antiquity until the 1960s, water mobilization and management for agriculture were predominantly the affair of village communities or the state. Today, however, the region’s agriculture has come to depend on explosive growth in irrigation from individually owned groundwater wells, and the current irrigation regime is wholly new. The resulting groundwater stress poses an environmental threat, but it also raises questions about the future of a vast agrarian system founded on a boom that seems destined to go bust.
Large swaths of western and southern South Asia are withdrawing much more water from underground aquifers than man and nature can put back into them, and society has yet to find a way of restoring the balance. The hard-rock aquifers in inland peninsular India offer so little scope for large-scale groundwater use that hydrogeologists would consider intensive irrigation with groundwater suicidal in these regions; nevertheless, smallholder agriculture in these parts has come to depend heavily on groundwater wells. Along the coasts, pumping groundwater on a large scale tips the precarious balance between coastal aquifers and the sea, threatening saltwater intrusion; nevertheless, many coastal areas are witnessing a runaway groundwater boom. In the Indus basin in the northwest, even though vast alluvial aquifers are recharged by the network of canals from the Indus Basin Irrigation System, farmers pumping groundwater bring up the salts accumulated thousands of years ago, when most of the region was under the sea, and deposit them on the fields, progressively reducing the productivity of soils. When fields are drained, these salts enter the river system and help make the Indus a salt-laden drain by the time it arrives in Sind. Only in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin on the eastern front—where the alluvium is 600 meters deep and the annual runoff exceeds 1,400 km3(Shiklomanov 1993, 16)—did there seem an opportunity for large-scale groundwater irrigation without major collateral damage. In recent years, however, arsenic has shown up in groundwater.
Drained wetlands and low-flowing rivers, falling water levels and rising pumping costs, deteriorating groundwater quality and new public health hazards—these are all consequences of South Asia’s anarchic groundwater development. Agricultural opportunism has been the driving force, and intelligent resource governance, a casualty.
There are fervent calls to end the anarchy, but this is more easily said than done. This book explores why. It describes how irrigation has enhanced the welfare of the region’s poor even as the groundwater boom threatens to create “illfare” on a comparable scale. It considers irrigation’s changing nature, drivers, and impacts on South Asia’s still predominantly agrarian society. Above all, it asks how South Asia will manage this irrigation anarchy.
The book begins by tracing the ascent of water-managed agriculture to situate irrigation today in its historical context. This prelude is essential for understanding the forces that drive South Asia’s irrigation economy, and for analyzing how public policies and institutions can bring order to this chaotic economy without undermining its stupendous benefits. When we compare the South Asian situation with the experience of other irrigating countries of the world, the historical background becomes critical to developing the central policy argument of the book: that to be effective, irrigation policies in South Asia must address the unique socioecological characteristics of the region and its people.
Here is a brief tour of the book. Chapter 1 traces the evolution of irrigation in South Asia, and elsewhere in the world, with emphasis on the progression of events during the 19th and 20th centuries. Chapter 2 analyzes the unique dynamic of South Asia’s groundwater boom and explains why it must be understood as a phenomenon in itself rather than as part of the global socioecology of groundwater irrigation. Chapter 3 analyzes how gravity-flow irrigation is shrinking in South Asia and why it will continue to do so, absent any change in policy. Chapter 4 recounts the welfare that groundwater irrigation has created for South Asia’s agrarian poor; Chapter 5 deals with the disaster it threatens to create unless the region implements an effective strategy for managing this runaway groundwater irrigation economy. Chapter 5 also analyzes how the groundwater irrigation boom is silently reconfiguring river basins, upsetting old calculations and challenging received wisdom on river basin management. It suggests that establishing effective river basin management in South Asia may depend on understanding how farming communities respond to groundwater development in different aquifer conditions. Chapter 6 proposes a set of hypotheses to facilitate such an understanding and adduces evidence in their support. Chapter 7 presents a comparative analysis of other countries’ experience in managing the demand for groundwater and describes how nascent efforts at demand management in South Asia are driven to chart their own distinctive course. Chapter 8 concludes the book by arguing for a practical, short- to medium-term groundwater governance strategy for South Asia that is society-centric rather than state-centric.
A note about geographical terms: Thus far I have used both “British India” and “South Asia” to refer to the vast landmass that is the stage of the drama described in this book. In reality, however, there is little groundwater irrigation in the middle Himalayas or in Bhutan and Burma (Myanmar), or in India’s northeastern states, except Assam. The “groundwater anarchy” is occurring in what were the princely state of Hyderabad, in a cluster of more than 200 small princely states of Kathiawar, in the Terai areas of Nepal, and in northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka—none of which were part of British India. Throughout this book, then, I use “South Asia” to describe what is happening in the plains of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, while taking an occasional look at the rapidly growing groundwater irrigation in northern Sri Lanka.
And finally, a note about the approach and methodology. The book takes a broad sweep to describe and analyze broad trends in South Asian irrigation that may overlook local details. It proposes several new hypotheses and introduces evidence in their support but does not necessarily offer rigorous tests for them. Its approach is intuitive more than formal, its aim being to design a frame that can center the current reality of South Asia’s irrigation economy. The Streeten-Kuhn maxim (Kuhn 1962) underlines the approach taken: a model (or framework) is never defeated by facts, however damaging, but only by another model.
... In 2012, Indian power utilities subsidized pump irrigation with electricity subsidies amounting to Rs. 369 billion (~ US$7 billion) [10]. The subsidy on electricity has significantly driven groundwater irrigation, especially in the western and peninsular regions of India [11,12]. According to the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB), around 80% of the 1963 semi-critical, critical, and over-exploited blocks are concentrated in states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu [13]. ...
... [21] found that estimates for onfarm energy consumption by electric pumps were closest to the electricity supplied to agriculture at 40% pump efficiency. Diesel pumps are generally less efficient compared to electric pumps with efficiency levels ranging from 20 to 30% [12,14]. In this study, instead of employing a deterministic approach, a range of values was considered for pump efficiency due to the significant impact of pump efficiency on carbon emission estimates [14]. ...
... Energy use and carbon emissions were calculated using efficiencies of 30% and 40% for electric pumps. Additionally, electric pump efficiency is further reduced by transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in delivering power to the pumps [12]. T&D losses were assumed to be 20%, based on a recent estimation by the Government of India [22]. ...
In the western part of Gujarat, many farmers depend heavily on groundwater to grow their crops. They often use informal pump irrigation services, which help small and marginal farmers access water for their fields. This system has had positive effects, making water more fair, efficient, and sustainable, especially in regions like Gujarat where water is plentiful. However, in this type of economy, where pumps are crucial, energy and irrigation go hand in hand, forming what is known as the “energy-irrigation” nexus. Farmers mainly use electricity or diesel to power their pumps. Currently, most discussions focus on the link between electricity and irrigation. High electricity prices encourage the creation of water markets, benefiting small farmers. But because many rural areas lack electricity, farmers often rely on diesel, which has become more expensive, leading to a shortage of groundwater. This has hurt crop production and farmers’ incomes. To address this, it is important to quickly bring electricity to rural areas and maintain affordable electricity rates. This would help support water markets and ensure small farmers can continue irrigating their fields. In Gujarat, using groundwater for farming has increased food production but caused problems by depleting water and polluting the environment. This study looked at pollution from groundwater farming in Gujarat, focusing on crops like mangoes, cotton, wheat, millet, and green gram. Results showed cotton emits the most CO2 due to heavy water needs, followed by mangoes and wheat. Declining groundwater levels have led to more energy use and CO2 emissions. Overexploitation of aquifers and changes in weather patterns has worsened water shortages in Gujarat. This affects food and freshwater security. This study was undertaken to assess the CO2 emission from groundwater irrigation in agriculturally dominant blocks (crops), which are Jalal pore (mango, banana), Valia (cotton), chital (cotton), Kodinur (wheat, millet, and green gram), and Sutra pada (wheat) of Gujarat in India. Groundwater depletion in India remains one of the most critical issues related to future food and freshwater security and has also influenced sustainable development goals (SDG 6, SDG 13). This study indicates that the CO2 emission from groundwater irrigation for the baseline scenario is the highest for cotton (17 MT of CO2) followed by mango (9 MT of CO2/ha/m), and wheat (8.4 MT of CO2). Higher CO2 emissions from cotton, rice, and wheat are due to more area under these crops as well as the huge extraction of groundwater. By improving the pump set and irrigation efficiencies together up to the achievable level, CO2 emissions can be reduced up to a certain amount for crops.
... Alluvial aquifers are generally composed of silt, sand, gravel, or similar unconsolidated material, which means they have relatively more porous space and a high specific yield and storativity (CGWB 2015; Earle and Panchuk 2015;Shah 2009). They can store a lot of water, which can be a great boon as well as a bane. ...
... The sensitivity of alluvial systems to extraction is very different from that of hard-rock systems. In alluvial aquifers, groundwater extraction per unit of time remains relatively stable (Fishman et al. 2011;Kumar 2018;Shah 2009). In part because of the high productive capacity of the aquifer, the water table tends to drop gradually and is not very responsive to abstraction. ...
... In some cases, the increased cost of extraction may even be compensated by the higher income earned per unit of groundwater. In general, the awareness and attention of users with regard to the depletion of resources is low, leading to negligible interest in corrective measures (Shah 2009). ...
India has one of the highest rates of groundwater extraction in the world, with depletion rates increasingly becoming a concern. The vast alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic Plain are vital for the country’s food security and livelihoods of millions. However, abstraction far exceeds natural recharge, resulting in a gradual decline. The hard-rock aquifers of peninsular India are also subjected to over-exploitation. But in these low-storage aquifers, it manifests as seasonal emptying and filling. In recent years, policy attention has shifted from supply-side approaches such as watershed management to demand-side measures such as participatory groundwater management under Atal Bhujal Yojana. However, the current strategies do not account for differences in geology. We argue that the management processes that worked in peninsular Indian hard-rock systems may not be suitable for alluvial aquifers, so a different approach is needed. To make this case, we draw on Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development framework for the management of common-pool resources. We argue that the characteristics of groundwater resources, the socioeconomic attributes of uses and users, and the rules governing use framed by existing institutions and agrarian policies are the distinguishing features to be considered in building solutions for alluvial aquifers.
... While the formal irrigation sector is a major strategy in this course, the contribution of the informal irrigation sector cannot be overemphasized. In India, private farmers have developed millions of wells for private irrigation over the past 40 years [2]. The trend is similar in Sub-Saharan Africa where small private irrigation (SPI) is gaining popularity amongst local farmers in rural and urban dwellings. ...
... An estimated 5 million small scale farmers in the sub-continent use low technologies to cultivate 1 million ha of land under irrigation [3]. The sector is therefore expanding quickly but without much attention and regulation [2]. De Fraiture et al. [4] intimated that, SPI is taking centre stage in irrigation development around the globe yet it has received little recognition. ...
... In order to ascertain the outputs relative to the land cultivated and the land available to the farmers, the output per unit cropped area which is the cumulative gross value of production in relation to the total land cultivated was computed using equation (1) whiles equation (2) was employed in computing output per unit command area, which is the cumulative gross value of production in relation to the total land available to the farmers. The cumulative gross value of production is as shown in equation (3). ...
... Electricity supply and tariffs have played a significant role in expanding access to irrigation and improving its affordability in South Asia [1][2][3]. Grid electricity in irrigation is still a dominant mechanism for delivering energy subsidies, governing water use in agriculture, and earning political mileage in economies with a large agrarian base such as India [3]. Experience suggests that despite adverse financial consequences on power utilities and their financers, a good quality electricity supply coupled with a predictable schedule and flat tariffs holds the potential to improve the access and affordability of irrigation for poor and marginal farmers. ...
... In recent years, there has been a significant political push to rapidly expand the electricity network and build dedicated agriculture feeders [5] to supply uninterrupted electricity throughout the year [6]. In this context, Bihar-a major agrarian and the poorest state in India, which gained infamy for its poor electricity supply network [2,7] has made significant progress in achieving universal electrification for domestic loads by expanding the grid network [8,9]. ...
... It is estimated that the majority of electricity subsidies are utilised by these farmers [44][45][46]. Small and marginal farmers typically do not even have wells in their farms and largely rely on wealthier well owning farmers to access irrigation via ISM [2]. However, it is established that even if the bulk of these subsidies are used by large landholders, the democratisation of affordable electricity for irrigation has benefitted small and marginal farmers through competitive and buyer friendly ISMs that were catalysed by favourable electricity policies [2,4]. ...
Affordable and reliable energy is an important driver for improving access to irrigation in South Asia. Policies for
improving electricity access and augmenting supply are likely to impact affordability and equity in irrigation
access, especially in regions where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. In this paper, we focus on the state
of Bihar in eastern India to study trade-offs across economic, equity, and political dimensions of energy transition
in irrigation. We argue that in the context of the nascent but steadily increasing solar-powered irrigation, a
decentralised energy regime is techno-economically and socio-politically distinct from a conventional centralised
grid supply. With different economic costs, governance issues, and varied incentives of stakeholders, there are
significant trade-offs associated with the two pathways of energisation. We further assess the multidimensional
trade-offs associated with the conventional ‘centralised’ and the modern ‘decentralised’ energy supply systems
for irrigation to present a comprehensive understanding of the technical systems aiming to address economic
development and livelihood security issues. We find that the life cycle costs (LCC) of centralised grid supply are
not only higher than that of decentralised solar-powered irrigation (SIP) but also the LCC for grid supply has a
high sensitivity to average cost to supply electricity (ACS). We also find that at lower pumping hours or lower
average cost to supply (ACS), grid electricity is competitive compared to SIP, but with an increase in pumping
hours, ACS or both, there is a considerable increase in the LCC of the grid connected pump, making SIP a more
economical option. Furthermore, we augment the analysis using primary data on farmers to examine the economic,
equity, and political trade-offs. By highlighting the complexities associated with the diffusion of decentralised
energy solutions in irrigation, our findings provide useful insights for public policy related to energy
transition in irrigation in India.
... Entering this new 'groundwater economy' has often been thought to weaken social links, by promoting individualisation and compounding differences in socioeconomic status. In many regions, farmers shifted from collective or publicly managed surface water irrigation schemes to individual boreholes in reaction to poor irrigation services, or because access to surface water was controlled by the local elite (Rinaudo, 2002;Shah, 2010). Also, in many regions of Morocco and Algeria, the main agricultural value chains that have been boosted by the groundwater economy are based on horticultural crops. ...
... The 'liberation' of farmers' access to water thus means that many farmers in groundwater economies increasingly evolve 'on their own' (Kuper et al., 2016;Landy et al., 2021). These economies have often been described as "jungles" -or "anarchies" (Shah, 2010) -in which farmers compete with each other for access to the groundwater resource and to sell their produce. ...
... The above-mentioned studies identified and characterised a wide range of processes that increase economic differences between farmers at the time they enter or while evolving in the groundwater economy. Collective action is sometimes mentioned, and some studies report that farmers pooled their resources to invest in a collective borehole (Shaheen and Shiyani, 2005;Shah, 2010). However, most studies ignored the social impacts of such initiatives, generally focussing instead on changes in farming activities and on economic changes, while taking the social configurations in which these changes take place as a given. ...
Access to the groundwater economy has frequently enabled an economic boom but is also believed to increase inequalities between farmers. The present study analyses social changes in a rural community as it entered and evolved in a groundwater economy, and today increasingly has to cope with groundwater depletion. The case study was conducted in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco, where marked social, economic and political differences habitually separated ethnic fractions. Farmers created several collectives to access groundwater resources and support the marketing of newly irrigated crops. Thanks to this new groundwater economy, the social and economic positions of previously marginalised fractions caught up with those of the historically favoured fractions. The basis on which farmers' collectives were organised had evolved and crossed lines between ethnic fractions. The social configurations at local level, which are often considered to influence agrarian change and actors' relations concerning water resources, actually evolve with them. These configurations have a major influence on the dynamics of farmers' collectives. Therefore, paying attention to evolving social configurations at local level is important if the aim is to involve farmers' collectives in the search for governance models to achieve sustainable groundwater use.
... While the formal irrigation sector is a major strategy in this course, the contribution of the informal irrigation sector cannot be overemphasized. In India, private farmers have developed millions of wells for private irrigation over the past 40 years [2]. The trend is similar in Sub-Saharan Africa where small private irrigation (SPI) is gaining popularity amongst local farmers in rural and urban dwellings. ...
... An estimated 5 million small scale farmers in the sub-continent use low technologies to cultivate 1 million ha of land under irrigation [3]. The sector is therefore expanding quickly but without much attention and regulation [2]. De Fraiture et al. [4] intimated that, SPI is taking centre stage in irrigation development around the globe yet it has received little recognition. ...
... In order to ascertain the outputs relative to the land cultivated and the land available to the farmers, the output per unit cropped area which is the cumulative gross value of production in relation to the total land cultivated was computed using equation (1) whiles equation (2) was employed in computing output per unit command area, which is the cumulative gross value of production in relation to the total land available to the farmers. The cumulative gross value of production is as shown in equation (3). ...
Small private irrigation (SPI) is a farmer-initiated irrigation which has the potential to increase the contribution of the overall irrigation sector to global food security. However, there is no much information about these systems for effective policies for regulation. This study compared the resource use productivities and environmental impacts of SPI systems to those of a government-led irrigation scheme (GIS) in Northern Ghana. The results showed that land productivity was higher in the SPI than in the GIS. Productivity per unit cultivated area was 2571.00 US/ha. Output per unit command area was also two times higher in the SPI than in the GIS; that is 2571.00 US/ha for SPI and GIS respectively. For water productivity, output per unit irrigation supply was 0.33 US/m3 for SPI and GIS respectively while output per unit water consumed by ET was 0.60 US/m3 for the GIS. The results implied that the SPI schemes performed better in land and water productivities compared with the GIS which is attributed to higher yields and the selection of high valued crops by farmers under SPI. However, both irrigation system types at the time of this study did not cause significant deterioration to the water bodies and surrounding environment as the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values of nearby water bodies were less than 3.0–5.0 mg/l, which is considered as acceptable levels for drinking water by World Health Organisation (WHO) while salinity levels were also within acceptable limits (
... and recharge can help sustain well irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions Shah, 2009). ...
... Engineering efficiencies in large surface irrigation projects in India are much lower than those of well irrigation schemes (Koech & Langat, 2018). But such comparisons are used by some researchers and activists to build the argument that surface irrigation projects are performing poorly and that the government investment in surface irrigation should be diverted to better management of aquifers (see, IWMI, 2007;Shah, 2009Shah, , 2016. While it goes without saying that the management of canal irrigation leaves much to be desired, such arguments about the bad performance of surface irrigation systems are based on obsolete irrigation management concepts that treated the water diverted from reservoirs in excess of crop water requirements as "waste" (Howell, 2001;Perry, 2007;Perry & Kumar, 2022;Seckler, 1996). ...
... It is often suggested that flows from the small canals (Times of India, 2008) or small water harvesting/artificial recharge structures (GoI, 2007;Shah, 2009) should be used for recharging aquifers. However, the arid and semi-arid regions where aquifers are depleting (CGWB, 2019) have extremely limited surface water (Kumar et al., 2008a), and hence these arguments are fallacious. ...
... We focus on the nexus between energy, groundwater, food, and the environment. Groundwater over-exploitation has emerged as the defining marker of water scarcity and insecurity around the world (Shah, 2009); and energy policies are at the root of this crisis. Vaux (2011) asserted that "[p]ersistent (groundwater) overdraft is always self-terminating" since increasing pumping depth makes energy use in irrigation unprofitable. ...
... However, groundwater overdraft has persisted in many countries, thanks to persistently rising and uncontrolled energy subsidies. Together, the geographies we have reviewed account for over twothirds of the global groundwater-irrigated agricultural area (Shah, 2009;Siebert et al., 2010: Table 2). The key question we ask is how and to what extent the WEFE nexus thinking has informed water governance here and, going forward, how can it balance the play of water, energy and food policies at local, national and regional scales. ...
... As a country racing toward 'water bankruptcy' (Collins, 2017), Iran is today growing its food by overexploiting its groundwater. As happened with canals and ancient tanks in India, private tubewell irrigation has cannibalized public and age-old qanat irrigation in Iran, too (Shah, 2009). Despite massive investments in dams and canals, Iran's canal-irrigated area shrank by 15%, while groundwater area increased by 39% during 199339% during -200739% during (Nabavi, 2018. ...
This review explores the challenge of groundwater governance in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China, Bangladesh, and India—which together account for over 2/3rd of the world’s groundwater use in irrigation. Global groundwater economy comprises three sub-economies: [a] diesel-powered unregulated, where use-specific energy subsidies are impractical; [b] electricity-powered regulated, where grid-connected electric tubewells are authorized, metered and subject to consumption-linked energy charges; and [c] electricity-powered unregulated, as in all geographies of our review --barring Bangladesh, Bengal and China-- where electricity subsidies have created an unruly, bloated groundwater economy. This last represents the heartland of global groundwater malgovernance, least prepared to meet the sustainability challenge.
In [a] and [b], groundwater scarcity stimulates water saving behavior via increased energy cost of pumping; not so in sub-economy [c]. This is home to water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus at its most perverse since users are immune to energy cost and impervious to groundwater depletion. Nexus approach is prodigious in technical research but has ignored the realpolitik of groundwater reforms, especially in overcoming farmer resistance to legalizing and metering tubewells, and collecting energy-water charges based on metered use. Our review captures several workarounds to do this. A good example is a recent large pilot in Gujarat, India, which showcases how a smart transition to solar irrigation can transform a perverse WEFE nexus into a virtuous one, paving the way from [c] to [b]. During 2018-19, Gujarat solarized 4215 existing grid-connected tubewells of 5-150 horsepower, net-metered them and gave their owners a 25-year remunerative solar power purchase guarantee. Today: [a] all tubewells solarized are metered; [b] farmers willingly surrendered energy subsidy they enjoyed for decades; [c] most earn from ‘growing’ solar energy and selling their surplus; and [d] solar power feed-in-tariff acts as surrogate for water price. The pilot established preconditions necessary for proactive groundwater governance.
... In recent years, groundwater receive much less water while head-end users take advantage. This top-down management approach is causing inequity in fair water distribution, causing a significant challenge to IBIS (Shah 2008). The outdated water allocation and distribution policies need to be revised to meet the demands of farmers, causing them to breach the warbandi rules (fixed water turns), particularly during the critical growth periods (Awan et al. 2016). ...
... This disparity in water allocation makes tail-end farmers either lessen their cultivated area or deal with the low crop yield. It leads the farmers with low water availability to tamper with canal gates and outlets, escalating into legal disputes (Shah 2008). ...
Water is a crucial and fundamental element in irrigation and agriculture. Understanding water dynamics in natural and engineered channels allows irrigation experts to distribute water efficiently. The irrigation canal network of the Layyah Division is critical to supporting agriculture activities of Punjab but faces significant constraints in the operation and management of canals. The main problem in the canal operation is water shortage occurring in the lower Indus Branch supplying water to the Munda Branch. The condition becomes severe when the lateral distributaries have to operate under flows less than their designed discharges, creating a situation of uncertainty for the tail-end users. A hydrodynamic model for the Layyah Canal network has been developed in HEC-RAS to evaluate the hydraulic performance of the Munda Branch Canal. The model has been optimized, calibrated, and validated with field observations. To evaluate the model's performance, a comparison has been made between the computed water levels at the head and simulated discharges at the tail of the branch canal. The results of the simulation showed that the model can calculate the discharge flowing through the lateral offtakes and outlets with reasonable accuracy, achieving R² values of 0.9451 for the water levels and 0.9978 for the discharges. The performance of the model is further validated by R² values of 0.9111 and 0.9888 for the water levels and discharges respectively. Moreover, the manual operation of the sluice gates for the lateral distributaries has been monitored, and it is observed that the distribution of excess water to the lateral offtakes at the head creates a situation of serendipity for the tail-end farmers. The model provides the basis for the effective operation and management of the Munda Branch and is critical for the optimal water distribution of the canals working under low heads of water.
... India is the largest groundwater user in the world. Indians use an estimated 230 cubic kilometres of groundwater per year, which is more than a quarter of the global consumption (Brisco & Malik, 2006;T. Shah, 2008a). With more than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies based on groundwater (World Bank, 2012;Dhavan, 2017), it is a vital resource for rural areas. Urban regions and industries are also increasingly using groundwater, and their usage is growing rapidly. In fact, in the last five decades or so, millions of priva ...
... The uncontrolled extraction of groundwater has been described by some as 'anarchy' (T. Shah, 2008a), and the future ahead as 'turbulent' (Brisco & Malik, 2006). This situation has arisen because the development of water infrastructure has not been accompanied by an improvement in the governance of water resources and services (Ibid). ...
Water Governance Standard and Certification System is a toolkit developed to catalyze the competitive dynamics in villages to improve the water governance and a informed decision support system to investors and government for investment in the water sector.
... Economic instruments include direct fees and fines for water use as well as energy or resource pricing, subsidies, compensation for not growing irrigated crops or payments to not extract water, opportunities to sell solar power to the grid, and payments for environmental services. Financial incentives such as fees, taxes, or energy pricing may affect water use, but can be politically difficult or impossible to apply, while subsidies may be hard to control, inefficient, and sometimes counterproductive (Grafton et al., 2018;Shah, 2009). Overemphasis on economic motives can be self-defeating if it "crowds out" internal motivations, although in some cases external motivations may also complement or "crowd in" internalized and intrinsic motivations (Frey & Jegeni, 2002;Ostrom, 2000;Agrawal et al., 2015). ...
... Experiential learning (Foundation for Ecological Security)(Sanil et al., 2024; Meinzen-Dick et al., 2018); e. Western India (e.g., Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra)(Shah, 2009;Shah et al., 2018); f. North China Plain (Kinzelbach et al., 2022). ...
Groundwater is a vital common pool resource for water supply, irrigation, and ecosystems, but can be difficult to govern due to invisibility, conflicting interests, and limitations of available institutions. While there are many policy and technical instruments (tools) available, efforts to apply them are often ineffective. This special issue of the International Journal of the Commons presents a set of papers with insights into policy instruments and other methods for groundwater governance. The relevance and effectiveness of tools and combinations of tools (toolboxes) in addressing problems that emerge from groundwater use is related to how they fit with diverse physical and social contexts. Drawing on research and applied experience, including that presented in this issue, we outline a conceptual framework for groundwater governance that emphasizes attention not just to knowledge, but also to motivations, and to agency for effective coordination among key actors. Articles in the special issue analyze groundwater governance in areas of Africa (east, south, and north), Central Asia, India, and the United States. The articles cover a range of scales from small groups playing experiential games to international agreements about transboundary aquifers. Several papers illustrate the crucial role of knowledge about groundwater, and the need for governance instruments and interventions to go beyond only changing knowledge. Three papers focus on groundwater games and their use to understand and change behavior, especially when combined with other tools that facilitate collective deliberation and action. Several papers illustrate how understanding of the ways people care about and practice care for groundwater illuminates examples and capabilities for groundwater governance. Highlights There are many institutional tools for governing groundwater, but no panaceas, and successes are rare Effective groundwater governance requires that key stakeholders have combinations of knowledge, motivation, and agency to act together effectively Groundwater co-management can combine stakeholders’ knowledge, values, and collective action with external science, resources, and authority Participatory processes can craft combinations of tools to fit contexts and pursue shared gains
... India has witnessed a 500% increase in groundwater consumption over the past half-century [1][2][3][4][5] , making it one of the greatest groundwater guzzlers in the world. Unsurprisingly groundwater reserves are depleting at an alarming rate 2,6 . ...
... Second, since rice and wheat are water-intensive crops, their increased cultivation requires irrigation. Over time the increased irrigation needs have been met by personal irrigation systems like wells rather than surface water systems like dams or canals 3,4 . Together these trends have contributed to rapid declines in groundwater levels. ...
Dwindling groundwater supplies threaten food security and livelihoods. Output subsidies for farmers are a ubiquitous agricultural policy tool, yet their contribution to growing groundwater stress remains poorly quantified. We show how output subsidies guaranteeing the purchase of crops at higher than market prices may have contributed substantially to declining water tables in India. Our analysis suggests that these policies may have led to a 30% over-production of water intensive crops. In the northwestern state of Punjab, rice procurement can potentially account for at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, wheat procurement adopted in the late 2000s appears to have driven a 5.3 percentage point increase in dry wells and a consequent 3.4 percentage point increase in deep tubewells. These results suggest that well-intentioned but poorly designed subsidies can impose harmful externalities on the environment and undermine long-term sustainable development.
... Surface irrigation has visible infrastructure and flows, with activities to operate and maintain the system connecting the users. By contrast, groundwater is less visible, users more dispersed, and users usually have no established activity to bring them together, though improving groundwater recharge or lobbying for government support sometimes offer an opportunity for collective action (Shah 2009). Thus, while local involvement in groundwater governance is needed, it has not emerged on a broad scale, nor have government agencies been effective, a situation which Shah (2009) refers to as anarchy. ...
... By contrast, groundwater is less visible, users more dispersed, and users usually have no established activity to bring them together, though improving groundwater recharge or lobbying for government support sometimes offer an opportunity for collective action (Shah 2009). Thus, while local involvement in groundwater governance is needed, it has not emerged on a broad scale, nor have government agencies been effective, a situation which Shah (2009) refers to as anarchy. Andersson and Ostrom (2008) highlight that addressing such challenges requires awareness of the polycentric nature of governance. ...
... Ayyanakere and Stepwells in India: Traditional water harvesting structures such as Ayyanakere tanks and stepwells have been used in India for centuries to store rainwater and recharge groundwater. These structures are being revitalized to support climate adaptation efforts in water-stressed regions (Shah, 2012). Qanats in Iran and the Middle East: Qanats are underground channels that transport water from aquifers to surface irrigation systems. ...
Climate change poses severe threats to global water security, with increasing droughts, floods, glacial melting, and rising sea levels disrupting ecosystems and human settlements. To address these challenges, advanced water resource management must integrate climate adaptation, sustainable governance, and technological innovation. This study examines strategies for enhancing water resilience through emerging technologies and nature-based solutions (NBS). Key approaches include AI-driven hydrological models, IoT-based monitoring, and satellite remote sensing for predicting and mitigating water-related disasters. Additionally, wetland restoration, reforestation, and watershed management are evaluated for their role in enhancing water conservation and ecosystem stability. By analyzing global case studies such as Singapore's urban water recycling, the Netherlands' flood management, and India's large-scale rainwater harvesting, this research identifies effective models for climate-resilient water infrastructure and circular water economies. The study also highlights the necessity of multi-stakeholder collaboration among governments, local communities, and private sectors to ensure equitable water distribution and long-term sustainability. This research contributes to climate-adaptive water governance, offering insights for policymakers, engineers, and environmental planners in designing resilient, sustainable water systems that balance human and ecological needs.
... Another important issue is depending on the monsoon and water management challenges that a good part of Indian agriculture is rain-fed, thus making farmers vulnerable to erratic patterns of the monsoon, drought, and flood-given impacts on crop production (Gadgil and Gadgil, 2006). Although irrigation infrastructure has improved, in states like Punjab and Haryana, the extraction of groundwater for irrigation has become a serious threat to long-term agricultural sustainability due to depletion (Shah, 2009). ...
Agriculture has always remained the lifeline for the Indian economy as it has provided work to a considerable section of the population and has also contributed highly to food security and economic development. The present study therefore is a direction on the trends in agricultural output, export, and import of major crops, as well as the challenges influencing agricultural growth in India. The research is completely based on secondary data for the period from 1950 to 2020, which is obtained from economic surveys, and agricultural statistics of India. Descriptive statistical tools such as trend analysis and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) calculations have been used to determine growth performance for selected crops that include rice, wheat, cotton, and jute. This study also examines the influence of several government initiatives, climate change and market forces on agricultural productivity. The findings of the study stress the need for reforms in the policy domain, sustainable farming practices, and better infrastructure for the agriculture sector to survive for a longer time.
... Economic Viability: Groundwater is essential for agricultural production, particularly in areas where surface water is scarce or seasonal. Over extraction can lead to higher pumping costs and the need for deeper wells, which are often beyond the financial reach of smallholder farmers (Shah, 2009). Sustainable groundwater management practices, such as efficient irrigation techniques and water conservation measures, help reduce costs and ensure that farmers can continue to cultivate their land productively. ...
Groundwater is a crucial resource for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, providing a reliable water supply for irrigation and livestock. However, unsustainable extraction practices threaten the long-term availability of this vital resource. This paper explores sustainable groundwater extraction methods tailored for smallholder farmers in Nigeria. By integrating traditional knowledge with modern technology, such as low-cost drip irrigation, solar-powered pumps, and water-efficient crop varieties, farmers can enhance water use efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Conclusively sustanable groundwater management is not only a technical challenge but also a socioeconomic and environmental imperative. It requires a multifaceted approach that combines technology, policy, community engagement, and education. The paper recommended that smallholder farmers should adopt low-cost and efficient technologies such as the Implementation of solar powered groundwater pumps to reduce operational costs and reliance on erratic power supplies or expensive fuel, and also to encourage the use of drip irrigation to minimize water wastage and maximize crop yield, and also that the Federal Government of Nigeria should Implement projects like the construction of check dams, percolation tanks, and recharge wells to enhance groundwater recharge in order to promote the collection and storage of rainwater for agricultural usage.
... Groundwater governance [1][2][3][4][5] has been a major problem for many public administrations over the last decades [6][7][8]. After mobilising groundwater resources or relying on individual groundwater extraction for agricultural development policies, numerous countries have suffered the depletion of springs and wells and festered socio-political conflicts at the local or national levels [9][10][11][12]. ...
New information and communication technologies have a significant potential to increase the transparency of aquifer management and improve groundwater governance. This research experiments the introduction of a mobile application that allows users to transfer and share information about their groundwater extractions and receive agroclimatic information and groundwater data. It takes place in three different aquifers in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, each with varied institutional frameworks. This research tests and evaluates the potential of enhanced information systems and citizen science applied to groundwater management and aims to identify some factors that facilitate or hinder their adoption and implementation. To do this, the researchers developed a 4-year plan based on surveys, semi-structured interviews, meetings, participatory workshops, and public round tables with local actors. The main lesson learned from the comparative analysis of these three experiences is that the use of enhanced information systems is more positively perceived, accepted, and adopted when an appropriate social and institutional framework exists and that the more consolidated this framework is, the easier they will be to implement and develop enhanced information systems.
... If the current levels of intensive groundwater withdrawals continue, the water availability for agriculture is likely to be constrained in the long run. Already reports are that some of the worlds' most accessible and highquality aquifers are resulting in depletion and degradation including irreversible mining of several aquifers (Shah 2009;Llamas and Custodio 2003;Morris et al. 2003). Though the uncontrolled intensive groundwater exploitation has emerged as Source: Siebert et al. (2010) the major cause of water scarcity and insecurity around the world, its overdraft continues to persist in many countries. ...
Globally, one-fifth of the arable land is irrigated but it contributes nearly half (47%) of the production of agricultural crops and almost three-fifth of the cereal production. Despite demonstrated socio-economic development of rural areas with intensification of irrigation, its negative impacts are also emerging in terms of increased salinization and waterlogging in surface water irrigated areas and depleting of groundwater with overexploitation and their quality deterioration. However, the challenges of meeting the projected global demand for food of ever increasing populations are monumental especially in lieu of forecasted increasing water scarcities with expected climatic variability. In addition to innovative government policies, technologies to improve irrigation efficiencies and other management issues for irrigation water supplies, enhancing the utilization of non-conventional waters is being thought as an alternative to enhance water supplies. These include rain enhancement through cloud seeding or its capture through micro-scale rainwater harvesting units and tapping offshore and onshore deep groundwater or marginal-quality waters. The marginal-quality waters mainly include saline ground/drainage and treated effluents. Their use for irrigation often leads to soil health and environmental issues. In-depth and upgraded information available for the sustainable management of saline and alkali irrigation waters at the crop, root zone, and farm levels are elaborated in this compilation.
... The impressive surge in rice output has been limited to irrigated belts of the country. The skewed distribution of green revolution and increased costs of cultivation have given alarming signal to future needs of food security, while water scarcity has posed a major threat (Shah, 2009;Shah et al., 2016). ...
Rice yield underperformance coupled with production instability in Odisha state of India is primarily due to low irrigation potential, the spatiotemporal disparity in rainfall pattern and relentless confrontation with biotic and abiotic stresses. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was introduced in the state with the promises of higher production horizon. However, the present scenario of patchy adoption pattern has necessitated comprehensive study on dynamics and determinants of adoption of SRI. We found that, 57 percent farmers continued SRI, 28 percent discontinued and rest were practicing conventional rice farming. The focused group discussion among the farmers helped us to triangulate the determinants of SRI adoption.The increased SRI area allocation was observed at the expense of reduced number of adopting farmers. Economic scarcity of skilled labour, difficulties in transplantation and mechanical weeding, low irrigation potential and poor on-farm water management were major constraints in SRI practice. Farmers’ compliance in following different resilient SRI components that also varied spatiotemporally has resulted in realized incremental yield. SRI was proved to be resilient to severe drought during 2015-16 and yielded 27 percentage higher than conventional one with considerable decline in hazardous chemicals usage. Farmers’ decision on SRI adoption/discontinuation was analysed using probit regression analysis. The results indicated that, active social involvements of NGOs, on-farm training and demonstrations, and realized incremental rice income influenced SRI adoption. On the other hand, SRI area expansion hindered mainly because of infeasible land topography, area saturation and lack of farmers’ interest. The sustainability index was developed to analyse SRI’s performance to other conventional methods at farm level. Comparatively, SRI adopters benefitted in terms of incremental net return by enhancing ecological balance and sustained productivity of soil, use of eco-friendly and own farm inputs. Nonetheless, higher women labour displacement observed under SRI can be curtailed by providing training to young farm women.
... This adds another layer of complexity to the issue, especially for the marginalised. Historically, groundwater development across the world has been characterised by 'anarchy' (Shah, 2008), leading to a 'silent revolution' with users exploiting groundwater resources in an unplanned and unmanaged fashion. There is a need to maintain a robust groundwater governance framework that considers the social norms influencing behaviour towards groundwater use in India. ...
The rate of groundwater extraction has seen an exponential rise in India over the past few decades. Several districts in the country face groundwater depletion and contamination issues, threatening agricultural and domestic usage. The overexploitation of the resource can be attributed to the sowing of water-intensive crops, distortionary subsidies, the absence of incentives, asymmetrical information, and regulatory bottlenecks. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the experiences of various states of India in regulating groundwater extraction. It discusses both the legal and institutional components of the current framework and explores groundwater conservation policies from both the demand and supply sides. The paper highlights the issues of zoning and registration of wells, the promotion of water-saving practices, the implementation of recharge projects for aquifers and wells, and the improvement of groundwater governance as potential solutions to alleviate the ongoing crisis. Furthermore, the paper emphasises the importance of sustainable management, community engagement, and regulatory frameworks to tackle issues like groundwater depletion. Lastly, it suggests actionable steps for policymakers to promote sustainable practices and ensure a secure future for India's groundwater resources.
... India encompasses 4% of the total lands worldwide with 24% of the global population and more than 30% of world's irrigated land (FAO, 2013). With the onset of the Green Revolution in the 1960s, the country's agriculture depended heavily on irrigation (Shah, 2009). Subsequently, over the past 50 years, a phenomenal shift from surface water to groundwater resources for irrigation has been observed with a significant increase of change in groundwater use from 10.4% in 1970 to 62% in 2019 (Roy & Shah, 2002;Ministry of Water Resources, 2007;Gulati et al., 2019). ...
Aquifers underlying the arid lands of Rajasthan are under stress due to expansion in groundwater-irrigated areas. This study investigated trends in the long-term groundwater level and explored linkages of groundwater with rainfall and irrigated area in 12 districts of the arid region of Rajasthan, India using 64-year (1957-2020) rainfall data of 62 stations and 36-year (1984-2019) groundwater-level data of 4042 sites for pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Box-whisker plots of the district-wise average annual rainfalls were drawn. Trends in groundwater levels were identified by employing Mann-Kendall test and their magnitudes were quantified using Sen’s slope estimator test. Furthermore, linkages of groundwater levels with rainfall and groundwater-irrigated areas were evaluated through correlation and linear regression analysis. Results indicated that annual rainfall increased at a rate of 18 mm year-1 over the last 2 decades. Also, annual rainfall crossed an amount of 400 mm in 7 of recent 10 years. The declining trends (p<0.05) of groundwater levels were identified at more than 50% sites mainly located in Jalor, Jhunjhunu, Pali, Sikar, Nagaur and Jodhpur districts. In contrast, rising trends in Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Bikaner districts were attributed to excessive canal-irrigation and poor-quality groundwater. Declining groundwater levels were more prominent in Jalor, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur and Sikar districts in post-monsoon (>0.60 m year-1) as compared to pre-monsoon (0.40-0.50 m year-1) season. Groundwater levels revealed poor response to rainfall as evidenced from weak linear relationship with low correlation coefficients (r) values. On the contrary, groundwater-level revealed moderate to strong linkages with irrigated areas based on r ranging from 0.58 to 0.94 and 0.68 to 0.96 during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season, respectively. Findings of this study suggest need for adopting good strategies like harvesting surplus rain/runoff water and utilizing the harvested water judiciously for irrigation or groundwater recharge. However, this will require developing incentive-based policies to encourage farmers and other stakeholders to adopt water harvesting and help curtail excessive groundwater extraction for irrigation. In addition, reducing subsidies on electricity and promoting less water-requiring crops and adoption of water-saving technologies can be part of the policy framework.
... A yet different solution proposed in India has been to use solar-driven GW pumps to produce electricity rather than to grow food. In support of this proposal, some pilot studies have been implemented in semi-arid India to support rural livelihoods, water resources and energy development 44,45 . ...
Groundwater development is key to accelerating agricultural growth and to achieving food security in a climate crisis. However, the rapid increase in groundwater exploitation over the past four decades has resulted in depletion and degradation, particularly in regions already facing acute water scarcity, with potential irreversible impacts for food security and economic prosperity. Using a climate–water–food systems modelling framework, we develop exploratory scenarios and find that halting groundwater depletion without complementary policy actions would adversely affect food production and trade, increase food prices and grow the number of people at risk of hunger by 26 million by 2050. Supportive policy interventions in food and water systems such as increasing the effective use of precipitation and investments in agricultural research and development could mitigate most negative effects of sustainable groundwater use on food security. In addition, changing preferences of high-income countries towards less-meat-based diets would marginally alleviate pressures on food price. To safeguard the ability of groundwater systems to realize water and food security objectives amidst climate challenges, comprehensive measures encompassing improved water management practices, advancements in seed technologies and appropriate institutions will be needed.
... Groundwater governance is challenging (Closas and Villholth, 2020;Molle and Closas, 2020b;Shah, 2009). Groundwater governance approach varies from state-centred governance to co-management to instances of community-centred management . ...
... The agrarian development of the state is credited to reliable and subsidized electricity access for groundwater extraction and irrigation. The subsidy not only burdens the government budget but also creates unintended negative incentives for groundwater depletion (referred to as 'perverse subsidies' by Shah, 2009 and subsequently by us as perverse incentives in the sections below). If not tackled effectively, the state's current groundwater depletion rates will lead to greater vulnerability for agriculture and desertification of vast areas with increasing climate change threats in the region. ...
Carbon emission-led climate change affects food security. Although irrigation builds climate resilience and supports the stability of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, irrigation access and reliability are constrained by energy access, whereas increasing energy demand exacerbates carbon emissions. This feedback demonstrates the need to include carbon in the nexus, leading to a WEF-carbon (WEFC) nexus. Solar irrigation can be a four-way win, as it contributes to positive water, energy and food interactions without increasing carbon emissions. This paper empirically assesses farmer-owned solar irrigation in Gujarat, India, and identifies mechanisms for mainstreaming solar irrigation and stakeholders' roles in the WEFC nexus.
... 74 Two other variables are likely to be important in determining agricultural productivity: groundwater and agroclimatic conditions. Groundwater is crucial to irrigation in India both as the primary source of irrigation and to supplement canal irrigation Shah, 2009. The prevalence of groundwater resources is highly collinear with the prevalence of alluvial geology. ...
Dams are iconic but controversial manifestations of development. Applied economists have gained unprecedented respect for the ‘credibility revolution’ toolbox in econometrics. The highly regarded 2007 paper, ‘Dams’, by Duflo and Pande, using methods from this toolbox reports that dams completed in districts in India in the 20 years from 1970 had some negative effects in their own districts and positive effects in neighbouring downstream districts. We present new data and analysis of the impacts of dams in India using administrative area (district–level) variables, which suggest that dams have no readily discernible negative effects on agricultural productivity in their own districts but positive effects in districts which are actually downstream and have the agro-ecological conditions conducive to irrigation, of which substantial parts have been developed as irrigation command areas. These findings are meaningfully different from those in ‘Dams’ and underline the need for careful application of the toolbox of the ‘credibility revolution’ in economics on the basis of a thorough understanding of the sciences involved.
... This depletion in groundwater poses a direct risk to the livelihood and food security of several hundred millions of people [7][8][9]. Few nations face more acute challenges than India, where irrigationdependent agriculture depends on groundwater resources that have been steeply declining [10,11,43]. Understanding the drivers of depletion is clearly necessary, but inherently difficult: decline is the result of complex interactions between natural and human variables and policy inputs, and exhibits temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the timing and incidence of groundwater depletion [12][13][14][15][16]. ...
Food production in much of the world relies on groundwater resources. In many regions, groundwater levels are declining due to a combination of anthropogenic extraction, localized meteorological and geological characteristics, and climate change. Groundwater in India is characteristic of this global trend, with an agricultural sector that is highly dependent on groundwater and increasingly threatened by extraction far in excess of recharge. The complexity of inputs makes groundwater depletion highly heterogeneous across space and time. However, modeling this heterogeneity has thus far proven difficult. Using two ensemble tree-based regression models, we predict district level seasonal groundwater dynamics to an accuracy of R = 0.4-0.6 and Pearson correlations between 0.6 and 0.8. Further using two high-resolution feature importance methods, we demonstrate that atmospheric humidity, groundwater irrigation, and crop cultivation are the most important predictors of seasonal groundwater dynamics at the district level in India. We further demonstrate a shift in the predictors of groundwater depletion over 1998-2014 that is robustly found between the two feature importance methods, namely increasing importance of deep-well irrigation in Central and Eastern India. These areas coincide with districts where groundwater depletion is most severe. Further analysis shows decreases in crop yields per unit of irrigation over those regions, suggesting decreasing marginal returns for largely increasing quantities of groundwater irrigation used. This analysis demonstrates the public policy value of machine learning models for providing high spatiotemporal accuracy in predicting groundwater depletion, while also highlighting how anthropogenic activity impacts groundwater in India, with consequent implications for productivity and well-being.
... However, as a result of technological innovation, including the availability of affordable, individual pump sets and cheaper well-drilling technology since the 1980s, the number of individual smallholder irrigators quickly increased. Small-scale irrigation, developed by individual farmers or small groups of farmers took off particularly in Asia, where landholdings are small and some countries provide subsidized or free electricity to agriculture (Shah 2015). The sustainable potential for small-scale irrigation is also considerable in Africa south of the Sahara: Xie et al. (2014) estimate a total potential of 30 million hectares using motor pumps directly purchased and operated by individual farmers. ...
... Si bien este tipo de riego de gestión individual, también llamado atomizado (Shah, 2010), evade algunos de los problemas de la acción colectiva vinculados al manejo del agua, otros permanecen. El agua subterránea no deja de ser un recurso común, invisible y de distribución lenta que pone en relación de mutua dependencia a todos sus usuarios (Villholth et al. 2018). ...
El agua siempre ha sido un objeto de la antropología, especialmente dentro del campo de estudios de la Ecología Cultural y la Antropología del Desarrollo. A partir de Siglo XXI las cuestiones relacionadas a este elemento adquirieron creciente relevancia cuando los organismos internacionales postularon la inminencia de una Crisis Hídrica Global, aún más incierta por los efectos del Cambio Climático. Dado que la mayor proporción de agua dulce del planeta se destina a la agricultura, en la agenda de las problemáticas hídricas se destaca el uso del agua para riego. Para la antropología, en especial desde mediados del Siglo XX, la investigación sobre dichos sistemas ha revestido importancia tanto teórica como práctica por las implicancias que los mismos tienen para la organización social. A partir de una revisión bibliográfica, el objetivo de este artículo es presentar una síntesis de cómo ha tratado la antropología social las cuestiones vinculadas al riego y argumentar qué es lo que ella tiene para aportar a su estudio. En tercer lugar, se presenta un repaso de los estudios sociales sobre riego en Argentina con el objetivo de trazar un esquema general de la situación actual de este campo en el país. Como resultado se observa una amplia hegemonía del enfoque neo-institucional y del paradigma de la GIRH, liderado por ingenieros agrónomos y economistas de los recursos, dejando de lado otras posibles aproximaciones que enriquecerían la profundidad de los análisis para entender a estos sistemas como parte integral de la organización social.
... The concept of sustainable use and management is the core of this second principle, which is also essential to balance the source of water resources' source and supply sustainability. For instance, excessive reliance on groundwater in countries like India has triggered aquifer depletion (Shah, 2009). Extreme extraction threatens the supply of water and the source. ...
Water being a scarce resource, questions of its allocation and distribution, coupled with concerns of its depletion have troubled policy makers, legislators, and judges alike. While, over the years there has been significant development on the discussion surrounding the rights-duty paradigm of water resources, by establishing the obligation of states, discussion surrounding a certain value-based approach to guide the minds of important stakeholders in creating and enforcing policy has gained far less traction comparatively. It is in this context that this paper explores an alternative justice-based approach to water, drawing from the works of Amartya Sen on capabilities and more so the Brasilia Declaration of Judges on water justice and the various principles. This paper explores how judges can incorporate such an approach through their judgements. The paper also attempts to shift the focus from the hitherto considerations of an anthropocentric and economic nature that have governed water policy and adjudication, and further elaborates upon water as inherently a public good and an environmental necessity and the need for bolstering water management techniques on these grounds.
This chapter underscores the global significance of groundwater as a vital resource for domestic use, agriculture, industry, and ecosystems. Particularly, the chapter highlights key scientific issues in agricultural hydrogeology, emphasizing the implications of agricultural irrigation on groundwater resources. Additionally, it discusses the challenges faced in domestic, industrial, and ecological contexts, including over-extraction, contamination, and climate-induced changes in water availability. To address these challenges, the chapter proposes strategies for advancing hydrogeology in the new era, including enhanced research and monitoring, improved data sharing, incorporating citizen science, enhanced international collaboration, planned collaboration among academics, industry, research institutes, and governments, and continued funding and support from governments. By embracing these strategies, the hydrogeological community can continue to make significant contributions to the sustainable management and protection of groundwater resources worldwide.
Rice and maize are crucial for food security and livelihoods in Andhra Pradesh, where electricity subsidies heavily influence groundwater extraction. This study explored the effect of these subsidies on groundwater use for paddy and maize in Anantapur district, sampling 160 farmers across selected blocks. Primary data related to groundwater extraction before and after irrigation subsidy (agricultural year, 2021-22) were collected for the study. Results showed a significant rise in groundwater use following subsidy implementation, particularly in over-exploited areas. Maize saw a 22.82% increase in groundwater extraction, while paddy rose by 16.83% in over-exploited areas. The impact varied across farm categories, with marginal and small farms extracting more groundwater than medium and semi-medium farms. The subsidy led farmers to invest in electric pumps and extend pumping hours, intensifying groundwater depletion. These findings highlight the need for policy changes to adjust electricity subsidies based on crop water requirements, aiming to reduce excessive groundwater use.
This study examines the drivers of rice trade. The analysis uses the standard comparative advantage model, the Heckscher–Ohlin–Vanek (HOV) framework, supplemented with a gravity‐type equation. Using the Poisson pseudo‐maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation for data from 2002 to 2020, the analysis broadly confirms HOV model predictions. Results indicate that arable land, along with GDP, distance, precipitation and crop season temperature, significantly influences rice trade dynamics. The results showed that the precipitation play a key role in influencing the rice trade rather than the blue water availability. However, agricultural water stress discouraged exports and encouraged imports.
This article explores the political economy of groundwater-led agrarian transformation in dryland India through the expansion of groundwater irrigation and rice production since the 1990s. Within this process, I speak to aspirations by subsistence farmers and imaginaries by state governments for agricultural commercialisation via expanding and investing in irrigation infrastructures. In India, this has largely been driven by private and decentralised investments by smallholder farmers. Theoretically adding to the literature on water infrastructures, development aspirations and groundwater governance, I find how farmer aspirations of rice cultivation and associations of the crop with food security and status drove the debt-laden and capital-intensive rapid adoption of groundwater irrigation in dryland Telangana, aided by specific discourses and electricity subsidies policies post the formation of the newest state in India in 2014. I find that political discourses of historical inequalities over water in the struggle for state formation of Telangana in 2014 mobilised electricity subsidies as a key lever to re-imagine the state as a rice bowl of India through groundwater expansion, producing uneven political economy and ecological repercussions for farmers. This article finds that while rice production increased in a short period in Telangana, it came at the expense of widespread well failures and indebtedness at the farmer and village level colliding with the fragile semi-arid climate and hard rock aquifer setting in the state, deepening distress and decay from depleted water infrastructures and failed aspirations.
This chapter examines the crucial role of environmental sciences in promoting sustainable development in India. It highlights the interdependence between the environment and development, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that balances economic growth with environmental preservation. The chapter explores various key areas where environmental sciences contribute to sustainable development, including resource management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and environmental policy formulation. It also discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by India in integrating environmental sciences into its development agenda. Overall, this chapter underscores the vital role of environmental sciences in achieving a sustainable and prosperous future for India.
The rapid transition from a narrow focus on developing groundwater resources to wider thinking on groundwater governance has been a result of many different developments in the South Asian Region, particularly in India. Policies and practices of groundwater recharge, especially through engineered mechanisms have also evolved from artificial recharge to the concept of managed aquifer recharge (MAR). The large potential for MAR in India prompts strategic thinking on enabling projects on groundwater recharge, bearing in mind the diversity of India’s aquifers and the status of groundwater extraction in different regions of India. MAR is not just about adopting and adapting artificial recharge to different geographies but is also about understanding the contexts for MAR. Understanding groundwater conditions, making correct choices of recharge and conservation measures and gauging impact are an integral part of MAR, explained through case studies in this paper. Embedding groundwater recharge planning within the larger framework of participatory groundwater management and governance will provide a further impetus to change the very meaning of MAR—from managed aquifer recharge to managing aquifer recharge.
India's food security is facing increasing threats from climate change, urbanization, affluence, and population growth. The nation grapples with low water use efficiencies, estimated at 25% to 35%, largely due to inadequate adoption of water-saving micro-irrigation (MI) technology. Recognizing the critical state of food security, this research delves into the barriers hindering the adoption of MI technology to address these challenges. The study employs a comprehensive conceptual framework for technology adoption, considering agronomic and agro-economic factors, effective demand, and aggregate supply constraints faced by farmers. Analyzing data from 501 adopters and non-adopters in four states, the research uses binomial and multiple regression analyses, along with assessing perception responses to identify key challenges in adoption. Among the findings, institutional support emerges as a crucial factor influencing technology adoption. Elements such as subsidy delivery, information dissemination, credit availability, and altering perceptions about water abundance significantly impact adoption rates. Wildlife damage to micro-irrigation systems is identified as a major threat, emphasizing the need for interventions to address this issue. The study underscores the importance of government interventions targeting these factors to encourage adoption rates, highlighting the potential for strategic measures such as a special purpose vehicle model for institutional support. Improving access to subsidies, information dissemination, and altering perceptions about water availability are identified as key strategies not only benefiting farmers but also contributing to national water conservation efforts and long-term food security.
India is a global hotspot for irrigation-induced groundwater withdrawal, leading to widespread lowering of water levels, in turn resulting in disproportionate access to irrigation supplies among farming communities. Efforts to mitigate the situation, however, have fallen short, largely due to technocentric vision (e.g. microirrigation adoption) of the regulatory authorities (RAs), which does little to integrate the vast groundwater-dependent socioecologies with the decision making system. In view of that, we invite the RAs to deliberate upon a cap-and-trade mechanism that proposes to mobilize the farmers at every aspect of planning and execution, while to tackling multiple challenges simultaneously: (a) restrict groundwater pumping to a pre-defined safe level (cap), (b) creating a shared space/quotas for all to pump (allocation); and (c) making provisions for trade of allocations. The latter further augments farmers’ access to groundwater (and irrigation). Using a systematic bibliometric analysis of relevant world literature and contextual appraisal of groundwater-irrigation landscape in India, we develop a conceptual framework of cap-and-trade in three parts. In the first Pre-implementation stage, we emphasize a reality check study to assess ground conditions, if favorable for a cap-and-trade approach (existing social, economic, institutional circumstances). Next, in the Implementation stage, (1) we recommend an integrated hydrogeological-hydrometeorological modeling to determine flexible capping arrangements, with the possibility of delineating certain priority regions (coastal ecosystems); (2) for allocations, a reasonable fraction of the cap over a defined period; we envision a thoroughly participatory arrangement, centering on four action areas: identifying, informing, consulting, and involving the farmers, alongside all stakeholders engaged in the groundwater-irrigation decision making; (3) for trade, we urge the RAs to create win-win situations for both the sellers and buyers; develop the transaction protocols on certain foundational principles (e.g. simplicity, transparency and consistency); strengthening of local institutions, and development of targeted financial support schemes. We consider the third part of the narrative, Post-implementation stage, as a real game changer, comprising of a monitoring, auditing (performance benchmarking) component coupled with multitiered outreach-mentoring drives that demonstrate to the farmers the benefits of becoming part of the cap-and-trade program. Overall, a main motivation to present this research is to shatter the age-old socio-cognitive beliefs/taboos around groundwater pumping (My land, My Water), breaking the hegemony of the water sellers (rich/wealthy large landholder clans), to potentially, create a social norm whereby the farmers realize the value of restricting groundwater pumping and sharing for mutual prosperity.
Groundwater and water supplied from the surface water are important sources for drinking in arid and semi-arid areas such as India. In India, arid and semi-arid regions cover approximately 15.8% and 37% respectively, which is roughly half of the total geographical area (about 3,287,263 km2). Groundwater in these regions is scarce; therefore, along with quantity, groundwater quality is a major concern in arid and semi-arid areas of India. Therefore, in the present work, groundwater quality was documented for arid and semi-arid regions of India and observed that groundwater in many regions is unsuitable for drinking. This review revealed that pollutants like nitrate, fluoride, arsenic, lead, toxic metals, etc. are higher than the safe limit as per WHO guidelines. It was found that supply of sufficient healthy water and continuous monitoring are the two major challenges in these regions. Besides this, lack of sustainable management practices was found in all the Indian states except Bihar where fluoride removal centre (FRC) and arsenic removal unit (ARU) have been installed. However, their continuous surveillance is challenging. This chapter highlights various pollutants in the groundwater, along with management and major challenges for providing safe water in arid and semi-arid regions.
Planning in the 20th Century and Beyond - edited by Santosh Mehrotra October 2021
Climate change will likely increase crop water demand, and farmers may adapt by applying more irrigation. Understanding the extent to which this is occurring is of particular importance in India, a global groundwater depletion hotspot, where increased withdrawals may further jeopardize groundwater resources. Using historical data on groundwater levels, climate, and crop water stress, we find that farmers have adapted to warming temperatures by intensifying groundwater withdrawals, substantially accelerating groundwater depletion rates in India. When considering increased withdrawals due to warming, we project that the rates of net groundwater loss for 2041-2080 could be three times current depletion rates, even after considering projected increases in precipitation and possible decreases in irrigation use as groundwater tables fall. These results reveal a previously unquantified cost of adapting to warming temperatures that will likely further threaten India's food and water security over the coming decades.
The book offers a thorough analysis of the groundwater availability and use situation in South Asia with particular focus on the regional patterns; provides a critical assessment of how over the years various public policies have impacted the access to and use of groundwater by various segments of the farming communities, particularly the equity in access to groundwater and efficiency in use for agricultural production; critically reviews the resource assessment methodologies adopted by official agencies, highlight their flaws and shows how such flaws can lead to wrong management decisions; and critically evaluates several schemes implemented in different parts of the sub-continent, some of which touted as ‘highly successful’ and some controversial, for their effectiveness in checking groundwater depletion using sound principles in water management, and shows how the past analyses of their impacts on the resource condition have been misleading and flawed. Drawing definite clues from South Asian experience, especially those from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and outside the region, the author presents some viable alternatives for groundwater management for the distinct socio-ecologies that exist in the sub-continent, built on strong conceptual and theoretical foundations, and discuss how they can be implemented. Finally, some policy lessons for other countries especially from Africa that are at an earlier stage in the groundwater development trajectory are provided
Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and environmental degradation continue to afflict developing countries not because of technical failings but because of political and institutional failings. Current
policies and institutional arrangements are often ineffective, and the challenges are increasing. Institutional reform is critical, but many reforms have had mixed outcomes at best. This chapter proposes a structured, context-specific approach to reforming, negotiating, and crafting effective institutions, organizations, and policies for water management in developing countries based on a careful assessment of experiences. This approach recognizes the inherently complex, political, and contentious nature of institutional transformation. It promotes careful analysis—of the current situation, available options, vested interests, potential costs and benefits, potential allies and opposition—as a basis for a strategic plan to guide reform. The plan should be a flexible guideline, responsive to experience and new opportunities. It recognizes that institutions, organizations, and policies are context specific.
"The North China Plain, 3200,000 km in extent, is China's most important center of agricultural production and home to more than 200 million people. Through extensive irrigation, the region produces more than 50 percent of the nation's wheat and 33 percent of its maize, making it critical to national food self-sufficiency. Yet, on the North China Plain, water is the most vital and limiting resource. Natural streamflow has almost completely ceased because of diversions to urban, industrial and agricultural uses. Groundwater levels are declining steadily, salt water is intruding into previously freshwater aquifers and in some places the land surface is subsiding. Even the largest cities, which receive highest priority for water distribution, endure repeated 'crises' set off by water shortages. "The report examines the relationships between agricultural policies in the North China Plain, the approaches to water management that evolved from them, the quantity of water than was actually used, and the consequent groundwater depletion beneath Luancheng County, Hebei Province, from 1949 to 2000. To systematically address these relationships, we use a comprehensive water-balance approach. Our results indicate that a single, longstanding policy-that of using groundwater to meet the crop-water requirements not supplied by precipitation-is responsible fro the steady rate of groundwater decline. "Attempts to make water use sustainable have centered on improving irrigation efficiency to reduce groundwater pumping. Indeed, pumping rates for irrigation in Luancheng County have decreased more than 50 percent since the 1970s. However, water-table declines have continued unabated. This is because the only significant inflows and outflows to and from this hydrologic system are precipitation and crop evapotranspiration, respectively. As long as the irrigated area remains unchanged, crop evapotranspiration remains constant. In Luancheng County, irrigated areas overlie the shallow aquifer, so any excess irrigation water supplied by groundwater pumping passes through the soil profile and replenishes the water supply. Thus, decreased pumping causes a corresponding decrease in groundwater recharge from excess irrigation, while precipitation and crop evapotranspiration remain unchanged. In this physical configuration, irrigation efficiency improvements save no water. "We explore various proposals to stabilize water levels, including crop changes, water-saving technology, and urbanization. Integrating these proposals, we present a quantitative framework for collaborative land-use planning and long-term, sustainable water management, again using a water-balance approach. The inevitable conclusion of this analysis is that withdrawing some land from irrigation is an essential requisite for achieving sustainable water use in the North China Plain. This finding counters China's longstanding and successfully implemented policy of continually increasing the irrigated area in order to achieve the key societal objective of food self-sufficiency. The report is based on data, maps, reports, and interview obtained in Shijiazhuang City and Luancheng County, Hebei Province, People Republic of China in 2001."
Much of the investment in agricultural development has been in large-scale irrigation projects. Many of them, particularly in the less developed countries, have not realized their designed or potential productivity. A large part of this is thought to be due to an inefficient use of water and nonperformance of maintenance on the part of the farmers. The solution to this problem is thought by many to be Water Users Associations (WUAs). WUAs have been successfully promoted in small irrigation systems in Mexico. There are only hints that WUAs are successful in large bureaucratic systems. The conditions for success are stringent, and include a clear charter, sufficient rewards to motivate discipline, and a responsive bureaucratic environment. -from Author
This is the first of three efforts examining how irrigation institutions affect equilibrium stealing and enforcement rates. In this chapter, we examine rule—following and rule—enforcement rates of behavior adopted by irrigators on systems where rules are self—enforced rather than enforced by formal guards. To do this, we assume that irrigators rotate into the position of a turntaker. When in the position of a turntaker, they choose between taking a legal amount of water and taking more water than authorized (stealing). The other irrigators are turnwaiters who must decide whether to expend resources to monitor the behavior of the turntaker or not. In all our models, we find no combination of parameters where the rate of stealing by the turntaker falls to zero. In other words, there is always some stealing going on.
The overall objective of the paper is to evaluate the nature, magnitude and impact of groundwater markets on farm economy in the arid and semi-arid regions of Rajasthan based on primary data collected. The specific objectives are: (i) to study the nature and magnitude of groundwater markets in the study area, (ii) to understand the conduct of GWMs including the terms of transactions, (iii) to evaluate the costs and returns in water trade and the impact on farm business, and (iv) to conclude with the major implications for theory and policy in the realm of GWMs.
Report submitted to Kerala State Planning Board, Trivandrum
A description of the problems of operation and maintenance of irrigation systems, particularly in the United States, is presented in this paper. Operating procedures based on deliveries of water in accordance with natural flow rights, on demand, in rotation, and on advance orders are discussed. Causes of operating waste are described and the need for measurement of water is emphasized. It is pointed out that efficient operation of irrigation projects depends on the maintenance of all storage, diversion, distribution, and drainage works in good condition at all times. Various maintenance problems are described, and attention is called to the need for more efficient machinery and equipment. Certain records of costs of operation and maintenance of irrigation projects are presented and the importance of better cost accounting is emphasized.
Spells out the methodology for evaluating the indirect output contribution of canal seepage in low rainfall regions, and applies this methodology to the State-wide data for the Punjab. Thus, primarily assesses how much of the groundwater-based production in such regions can be ascribed to a loosening of the groundwater constraint via "artificial groundwater recharge' in the shape of canal seepage. -from Authors
A leading MIT social scientist and consultant examines five professions--engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning--toshow how professionals really go about solving problems.
There are many situations in a society, of the following type. A freely usable common resource, such as grazing land, exists. Each private herd-owner, if motivated only by short-term net income, will increase it by placing more beasts on this common resource, until the extra private return to him (MPR minus MPC) from his herd expansion declines to zero. But the expansion of grazing by each herd-owner reduces the available pastures for all graziers, and thus the condition of their herds. Soon, ‘the tragedy of the commons’ is upon them: each herder, in rationally expanding his private claim on grazing, may reduce the total value of other people’s animals much more than he increases the value of his own.
The agricultural sector is the largest water user in the world and especially in Asia. Agriculture plays a basic role in Iran's national economy and it consumes about 93.5% of the total national water resource. Iran is a water scarce country and it has been confronted with drought disaster in many parts in recent years. Since the link between poverty and environmental degradation is rather complicated, it should be investigated based on the level, distribution and type of poverty, the type of environmental problem and the conditioning variables. Such a link has been seen when environmental degradation is related to rural households' livelihood, directly and when based on rural quality of life as the best index for rural poverty, in this research. The main objectives of this study were investigation of poverty and groundwater depletion relationship; take those regions confronted with groundwater depletion and compare water use productivity of farmers who live in such regions with those who live in regions with no groundwater depletion to improve the understanding of potential links. The research was conducted according to a theoretical framework. Research findings revealed that farmers who live in regions confronted with groundwater depletion have been entered in a dangerous competition with others to consume their groundwater resources, with such competition being the main reason for their water use productivity descending, severely. Poorer farmers were the loser of such competition. A conceptual model was derived from research findings. Several applicable recommendations have been presented at the end of the article.
Increasing scarcity, conflict, and environmental damage are critical features of the global water crisis. As governments, international organizations, NGOs, and corporations have tried to respond, Chilean water law has seemed an attractive alternative to older legislative and regulatory approaches. Boldly introduced in 1981, the Chilean model is the world?s leading example of a free market approach to water law, water rights, and water resource management. Despite more than a decade of international debate, however, a comprehensive, balanced account of the Chilean experience has been unavailable. Siren Song is an interdisciplinary analysis combining law, political economy, and geography. Carl Bauer places the Chilean model of water law in international context by reviewing the contemporary debate about water economics and policy reform. He follows with an account of the Chilean experience, drawing on primary and secondary sources in Spanish and English, including interviews with key people in Chile. He presents the debate about reforming the law after Chile?s 1990 return to democratic government, as well as emerging views about how water markets have worked in practice. The resulting book provides insights about law, economics, and public policy within Chile and lessons for the countries around the world that are wrestling with the challenges of water policy reform.
How can property rights be protected and contracts be enforced in countries where the rule of law is ineffective or absent? How can firms from advanced market economies do business in such circumstances? InLawlessness and Economics, Avinash Dixit examines the theory of private institutions that transcend or supplement weak economic governance from the state.In much of the world and through much of history, private mechanisms--such as long-term relationships, arbitration, social networks to disseminate information and norms to impose sanctions, and for-profit enforcement services--have grown up in place of formal, state-governed institutions. Even in countries with strong legal systems, many of these mechanisms continue under the shadow of the law. Numerous case studies and empirical investigations have demonstrated the variety, importance, and merits, and drawbacks of such institutions.This book builds on these studies and constructs a toolkit of theoretical models to analyze them. The models shed new conceptual light on the different modes of governance, and deepen our understanding of the interaction of the alternative institutions with each other and with the government's law. For example, one model explains the limit on the size of social networks and illuminates problems in the transition to more formal legal systems as economies grow beyond this limit. Other models explain why for-profit enforcement is inefficient. The models also help us understand why state law dovetails with some non-state institutions and collides with others. This can help less-developed countries and transition economies devise better processes for the introduction or reform of their formal legal systems.
Four million feddans in Sudan are irrigated. Half of the total was developed since 1955, and production in the previously irrigated areas has been intensified. Despite these achievements, the schemes are not operating well. Aid agencies, chiefly the World Bank, have lent more than $700 million to build, maintain, and rehabilitate them, but these programs promote high technologies and assign a passive role to farmers. A cooperative program between researchers and farmers might lead to a better form of irrigated agriculture.
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In response to concern about water sellers' exploitative pricing to buyers, this paper analyzes the structure of groundwater markets and price determination for a sample of water sellers and buyers in irrigated villages in Madhya Pradesh, India. Nash's two-person bargaining model is used to specify a reduced form of groundwater price function. Regression results show that the market structure would rather work in favor of water buyers in that water price is determined in accordance with the cost of and reservation profit from irrigation. The results also show that sellers' personal characteristics explain price variations within and across villages, while buyers' have no effect. Among sellers' characteristics, both physical (irrigation systems) and human capitals (education) are important determinants of groundwater price. Types of contracts also significantly affect water price; price becomes higher under sharecrop contract presumably due to a risk premium payment from buyers to sellers. Policy recommendations include redesigning of credit programs that may currently induce over-investment in irrigation systems, but may not be adequate for income smoothing purposes. It may be better that irrigation development schemes are restricted only to the farmers who have difficulty accessing irrigation water for either topographical or social reasons, whereas credit programs for income smoothing purpose are extended to those who choose the sharecrop contract.