HESS Opinions: The myth of groundwater sustainability in Asia
<p>Across the arid regions of water-stressed countries of Asia, groundwater production for irrigated agriculture has led to water-level declines that continue to worsen. For India, China, Pakistan, Iran, and others, it is unrealistic to expect groundwater sustainability in a verifiable sense t...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/24/489/2020/hess-24-489-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Across the arid regions of water-stressed countries of
Asia, groundwater production for irrigated agriculture has led to water-level declines that continue to worsen. For India, China, Pakistan, Iran, and
others, it is unrealistic to expect groundwater sustainability in a
verifiable sense to emerge. Fragmented governance and the general inability
to bring traditional socio-economic tools to bear on reducing groundwater
demands have impeded progress to groundwater sustainability. For India and
Pakistan, where operational management is at the level of states and
provinces, there is no capacity to regulate. Also in both China and India,
the tremendous numbers of groundwater users, large and small, confound
regulation of groundwater. With business as usual, groundwater-related
problems receive insufficient attention, a situation referred to as an
“accelerating and invisible groundwater crisis” (Biswas et al., 2017).
Another obstacle to sustainability comes from trying to manage something you
do not understand. With sustainable management, there are significant
burdens in the needed technical know-how, in collecting necessary data, and in
funding advanced technologies. Thus, there are risks that Iran, India,
and Pakistan will run short of groundwater from over-pumping in some places
and will also be adversely affected by global climate change.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |