The Murray-Darling basin in Australia is widely acclaimed as a water governance exemplar.
Yet, governing groundwater has challenged Australian water managers.
The Australian Groundwater School at Adelaide says,“Groundwater will be the enduring gauge of this generation’s intelligence in water and land management.”
Many South Asian policy-makers are attracted to the Murray-Darling model, but overlook the differences between the Australian and South Asian groundwater economies.
Just 5.5 percent of Australia’s irrigated area depends on groundwater, compared with more
than 60 percent in India and 90 percent in Bangladesh.
The 285 to 300 km3 of groundwater that South Asia withdraws every year is 50 times greater
than the amount used in Australia.
But most importantly, South Asia has 20 million groundwater abstractors, 5,000 times more people than Australia, to whom groundwater governance must speak.