Unfolding the "Big Picture" on the Groundwater Economy

The use of groundwater revolutionized irrigation in many parts of the world, impacting the lives of millions of rural farmers in South Asia and North China , where over a relatively short period of time, it has become the mainstay of agriculture. In India , groundwater accounts for nearly 60% of the country's irrigated land, overtaking surface water in terms of total area irrigated. In Africa too, groundwater plays an important role within certain farming systems. The rapid growth in groundwater irrigation has brought many benefits to the rural poor. However, the intensification of groundwater irrigation is also threatening the resource together with the lives, livelihoods and ecosystems dependent upon it. IWMI's pioneering work on Sustainable Groundwater Management (SGM) has attempted to uncover the "big picture" of the groundwater economy and helped to fuse resource, user and institutional perspectives towards a better understanding of the groundwater socio-ecology. It has also mainstreamed key policy issues and built a network of local partners, while disseminating policy relevant research results.

IWMI's groundwater work has been driven by the premise that groundwater management is not possible unless certain questions are asked and answered. What is the size of the national or regional groundwater economy? How much groundwater is diverted for irrigation? What is its opportunity value? Who benefits from it, and who loses from it? What is the technological configuration of the groundwater economy? These questions, seldom asked by either researchers or practitioners, have shaped the scope and direction of IWMI's groundwater research which attempted to expand the groundwater irrigation discourse from one dominated primarily by ecological concerns, to one that incorporates the huge impact of groundwater on livelihoods, incomes, poverty and productivity.

With close links to IWMI's other themes, IWMI's research on SGM, has focused on "the challenge of the balance", i.e., achieving sustainable use and management of groundwater in ways that promote food and livelihood security for poor Women and men in Asia and Africa . IWMI's broader overview of the groundwater economy began with an IWMI discussion paper on the "Global Groundwater Situation", which served as a basis for stimulating discussions at the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague (Shah et al., 2001.). Subsequently, a new body of IWMI literature on groundwater socio-ecology virtually unparalleled in South Asia—was generated to add more substance and nuance to the emerging "big picture", as summarized in a paper for the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto (IWMI, 2003). More recently, IWMI's research on the groundwater socio-ecology has extended to the North China Plains, where groundwater irrigation has become a major factor, as well as to Africa , where the groundwater economy is thought to be evolving rapidly with little knowledge of its current use or management. Apart from revealing the broader picture of groundwater irrigation, the SGM theme also focused on practical solutions to protect the massive welfare gains that groundwater irrigation has created, particularly in Asia , while minimizing the costs associated with its intensive use in agriculture.(Shah, 2003). This has included bringing the issues of promoting Productivity, equity and environmental sustainability in groundwater use to the forefront of global, national and regional discussions. IWMI has also explored alternative institutional and policy approaches to sustainable groundwater management through comparative studies. Research results in all of these areas are summarized below.

Groundwater and Public Health

IWMI groundwater research has also raised awareness of the links between groundwater quality and public health. For example, research carried out in Bangladesh revealed that Groundwater supplies in 61 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh were contaminated with arsenic and an estimated 35 million people were at risk of being exposed to arsenic poisoning. IWMI initiated some work on this crisis in 1999 by carrying out a literature review based on situation analysis. Two other focal areas included 1) assessing the scale of present and likely future loss of human welfare on account of arsenic contamination and 2) identifying approaches that could be mobilized to eliminate or minimize such welfare losses. The Institute also assessed the prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis as a result of fluoride contaminated groundwater in North Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan .

Sustainable groundwater technologies and institutions.

Research on demand and supply management has focused on the range of policies and technologies available to promote more sustainable groundwater irrigation. In India, IWMI's research focused on the efficacy of several approaches including the promotion of micro-irrigation technologies, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, market-based systems, and decentralized groundwater recharge. IWMI's research on groundwater recharge, for example, showed that earthen irrigation systems can be transformed into highly productive, region wide groundwater recharge systems at very little cost and that groundwater recharge can ensure crop security and adequate water in times of drought. IWMI has also looked extensively into the water-energy nexus and the opportunities for jointly managing the two resources through indirect supply and pricing policies (Shah et al., 2003). IWMI's cross-country comparisons, however, suggests that appropriate solutions for groundwater management depend on a constellation of factors, and these differences have decisive impact on whether an approach that has worked in one country will work in another with a different context.

Translating Research into Action

TThe design of institutional interventions is an area where SGM has contributed at both national and regional level. Under the IWMI-Tata Program (ITP), built around a partnership between IWMI and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fund, SGM has worked with around 50 NGOs and local research institutions in India and organized over 20 consultations and workshops for researchers And policy makers. Much of the peer reviewed research has been translated into Water Policy Briefs, which are widely distributed among policy makers, researchers, donors and NGOs. At the grassroots level too, ITP's close collaboration with NGOs has made significant inroads in translating research findings into actionable recommendations on the ground.

 

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