A three-stage evolutionary protocol for groundwater governance
This review highlights the futility of recommending any one way as the best way to achieve groundwater sustainability. The challenge for each country/state/region is to evolve its own path to sustainable groundwater governance that resonates with its unique set of contingencies.
This review offers a three-stage approach to evolving an integrated groundwater governance regime that fits well with hydro-geological and socio-ecological reality (Figure 5):
STAGE I – FOCUS ON REFORM
Reform does not necessarily mean abolishing perverse subsidies and incentives that sanction and even provide incentives for groundwater depletion. Abolishing subsidies altogether may involve unacceptable political costs. But there are opportunities to rationalise subsidies that minimise their distorting effects. The Barind experiment in Bangladesh is one example of organising smallholder groundwater irrigation with minimal scope for perverse incentives (Box 9). The Gujarat experiment with farm-power rationing suggests a second-best option (Box 10).