Groundwater Intensive Use: IAH Selected Papers on Hydrogeology 7

Intensive use of groundwater has resolved the demand for drinking water and, through irrigation, has contributed to the eradication of malnourishment in many developing countries. The spectacular worldwide increase in groundwater use in the last decades, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, has been a silent revolution carried out by millions of small farmers. In some instances, groundwater abstraction has caused problems of quality degradation, excessive drawdown of groundwater levels, land subsidence, reduction of spring and baseflows or degradation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Most of these problems could be anticipated, mitigated, or even avoided with more active water agencies, adequate regulations and users participation in management. Groundwater Intensive Use contains a selection of papers presented at a symposium held in December 2002 in Valencia, Spain. It constitutes a step forward in creating a greater worldwide awareness of the relevance of groundwater in water resources policy. The book presents new ideas and accounts of recent advances in technical, economic, legal, administrative and political issues. It addresses groundwater development to ecosystems sustainability, through different or complementary approaches. A wide series of case studies from North and South America, Europe, South Asia and North and Sub-Saharan Africa cover the various issues. These case studies represent countries with a wide diversity of social circumstances, from areas in which development is emerging, to communities with a long history of successful groundwater use.

This definitive text adopts a more clarified approach to groundwater development, looking in particular at the ecological, legal, institutional, economic and social challenges associated with intensive groundwater use and its impact on poverty.

Groundwater intensive use is aimed to contribute to a more transparent, objective, and unbiased information on the pros and cons of intensive groundwater development, based on the experience in many countries during the last decades. A first group of authors present the positive and negative general aspects of intensive use of groundwater. A second group of authors provide an overview on the specific situation in some significant regions of the world where there is an intensive use of this resource. The book is written by authors from different countries and disciplines. The scope is not only to present the conventional hydrogeological aspects of the issue, but more importantly, the ecological, legal, institutional, economic, and social challenges and opportunities of such intensive groundwater use. It should be clear that different scientists, experts and stakeholders may interpret a given situation very differently, perceptions also change through time, and possible solutions are not unique and may often involve trade-offs, and accommodation to local circumstances, established policies and politics. Nevertheless, it is intended to propose actions in order to assure a sustainable groundwater development. It is expected that this book may constitute a step-forward to help clarify the importance of groundwater and its far-reaching implications. Among these implications can be mentioned the general relevance of groundwater development to eradicate poverty through providing potable water and food to the poor in a cheap and fast way.