Groundwater Governance in the Indo-Gangetic and Yellow River Basins Realities and Challenges

About this book

One of the key features of agricultural development in the last five decades has been intensive groundwater use in the Indo-Gangetic Basin (Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh) and in the Yellow River Basin (China). Groundwater irrigates almost 60% of the net irrigated area in South Asia and 70% in the north China plains. Groundwater use for agriculture is still increasing. Despite the growing significance of groundwater to agricultural growth, food security and rural livelihoods globally, and at the same time significant signs of limitations and constraints for further use, knowledge of the subject has remained limited. The subject includes the wider issues of socioeconomic impacts, political economy, groundwater institutions, access to other resources like energy and land, approaches to resource governance and management and specifically integrating evidence-based science into management decisions.

This book addresses these information shortfalls and provides a consolidated and cross-disciplinary source of information and documentation of realities and challenges of contemporary agricultural groundwater use and management in poverty-prone areas of Asia. It draws on primary data collected in the course of an innovative, cross-coordinated and inter-disciplinary fieldwork programme, covering those regions in Asia that significantly depend on groundwater for agricultural livelihoods. This work is essential reading for hydrogeologists, socio-economists, agro-economists and water managers working in poor countries. Donors and implementers, both government and NGO, will also learn from the experiences described in this book.

Contents

Section 1: INTRODUCTION
1. The role of groundwater in agriculture, livelihoods, and rural poverty alleviation in the Indo-Gangetic and yellow river basins: A review K.G. Villholth, A. Mukherji, B.R. Sharma and J. Wang
2. Towards better management of groundwater resources - lessons from an integrated capacity building project in the Indo-Gangetic and Yellow River basins K.G. Villholth
3. A comparative analysis of the hydrogeology of the Indus-Gangetic and Yellow River basins S.K. Jain, B.R. Sharma, A. Zahid, M. Jin, J.L. Shreshtha, V. Kumar, S.P. Rai, J.Hu, Y. Luo, and D. Sharma 4. Groundwater resource issues and the socio-economic implications of groundwater use: Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan S.M. Kori, A. Rehman, I. Ahmed, A. Nazeer and A.H. Khan

Section 2: REGION SPECIFIC CASE STUDIES
5. Groundwater resources and the impact of groundwater sharing institutions: Insights from Indian Punjab V. Selvi, D. Machiwal, F. Shaheen and B.R. Sharma
6. Groundwater resource conditions, socio-economic impacts and policy-instituional options: A case study of Vaishali district of Bihar, India A. Islam and R.S. Gautam
7. Groundwater resource conditions and groundwater sharing institutions: Evidence from Eastern Indo-Gangetic basin, India K.H. Anantha, D.R. Sena and A. Mukherji
8. The impact of shallow tubewells on irrigation water availability, access, crop productivity and farmers' income in the lower gangetic plain of Bangladesh A. Zahid, M.A. Haque, M.S. Islam and M.A.F.M.R. Hasan 9. Reaching the poor: Effectiveness of the current shallow tubewell policy in Nepal D.R. Kansakar, D.R. Pant and J.P. Chaudhary
10. Agricultural groundwater issues in North China: A case study from Zhengzhou Municipal Area R. Sun, Y. Liu, Y. Qian and K.G. Villholth
11. Groundwater use and its management: Policy and institutional options in rural areas of North China J. Cao, X. Cheng and X. Li

Section 3: THEMATIC ISSUES ON GROUNDWATER IRRIGATION
12. Anthropological perspectives on groundwater irrigation: Ethnographic evidence from a village in Bist Doab, Punjab R. Tiwary and J.L. Sabatier
13. Social regulation of groundwater and its relevance to the existingregulatory framework in Andhra Pradesh, India R.V. Rama Mohan
14. Using the living wisdom of well drillers to construct digital groundwater data bases across Indo-Gangetic basin S. Krishnan, A. Islam, D. Machiwal, D.R. Sena and K.G. Villholth
15. Crop per volume of diesel? The energy-squeeze on India's small-holder irrigation T. Shah, A. Dasgupta, R. Chaubey, M. Satpathy and Y. Singh
16. Managing the energy-irrigation nexus in West Bengal, India A. Mukherji, P.S. Banerjee and S. Daschowdhury
17. Groundwater markets in the North China plain: Impact on irrigation water use, crop yields and farmer income L. Zhang, J. Wang, J. Huang, S. Rozelle and Q. Huang

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Biography

Aditi Mukerji is a Researcher (Social Scientist) at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo. Aditi received her PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2007. She has more than 8 years experience and her area of expertise is institutions and policies of groundwater management in South Asia. In 2006, she co-edited a special issue of the Hydrogeology Journal focussing on social and economic aspects of groundwater governance. In 2008, she was awarded the Global Development Network Award for best paper under the category of Natural Resources Management. Her current research focuses on the impact of electricity reforms in India on the operation of groundwater markets. She has also worked on groundwater issues in Central Asia and on transboundary issues in the Nile Basin in Africa.
Karen Villholth is Senior Researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). She has more than fifteen years experience in soils and groundwater research and water resources management. She has been assigned to several international projects concerning water resources management, with long term experience from Denmark (her home country), Sri Lanka, Bolivia and shorter term experience from Thailand, USA, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Karen assumes the role of Senior Research Advisor to the Danish Government. She is the author of more than 25 peer-reviewed journal papers, and is the co-author of the books `The Agricultural Groundwater Revolution: Opportunities and Threats to Development.', and `Groundwater Research and Management: Integrating Science into Management Decisions'.