Groundwater Governance in Asia Muk

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.

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’.
Bharat Sharma is agricultural water management specialist and has over 30 years research experience in the developing countries. Presently he is Senior Researcher and Head of the New Delhi office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). He has more than 200 scientific publications and a number of books/ proceedings to his credit.
Jinxia Wang obtained her PhD degree in agricultural economics from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2000. Presently, she is senior researcher of Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and associate professor of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research. She has published more than 70 papers with more than 30 papers in refereed international journals. In addition, she is co-author of three books.

Section 1: INTRODUCTION1. The role of groundwater in agriculture, livelihoods, and rural poverty alleviation in the Indo-Gangetic and yellow river basins: A reviewK.G. Villholth, A. Mukherji, B.R. Sharma and J. Wang2. Towards better management of groundwater resources - lessons from an integrated capacity building project in the Indo-Gangetic and Yellow River basinsK.G. Villholth3. A comparative analysis of the hydrogeology of the Indus-Gangetic and Yellow River basinsS.K. Jain, B.R. Sharma, A. Zahid, M. Jin, J.L. Shreshtha, V. Kumar, S.P. Rai, J.Hu, Y. Luo, and D. Sharma4. Groundwater resource issues and the socio-economic implications of groundwater use: Evidence from Punjab, PakistanS.M. Kori, A. Rehman, I. Ahmed, A. Nazeer and A.H. Khan
Section 2: REGION SPECIFIC CASE STUDIES5. Groundwater resources and the impact of groundwater sharing institutions: Insights from Indian PunjabV. Selvi, D. Machiwal, F. Shaheen and B.R. Sharma6. Groundwater resource conditions, socio-economic impacts and policy-instituional options: A case study of Vaishali district of Bihar, IndiaA. Islam and R.S. Gautam7. Groundwater resource conditions and groundwater sharing institutions: Evidence from Eastern Indo-Gangetic basin, IndiaK.H. Anantha, D.R. Sena and A. Mukherji8. The impact of shallow tubewells on irrigation water availability, access, crop productivity and farmers’ income in the lower gangetic plain of BangladeshA. Zahid, M.A. Haque, M.S. Islam and M.A.F.M.R. Hasan9. Reaching the poor: Effectiveness of the current shallow tubewell policy in NepalD.R. Kansakar, D.R. Pant and J.P. Chaudhary10. Agricultural groundwater issues in North China: A case study from Zhengzhou Municipal AreaR. Sun, Y. Liu, Y. Qian and K.G. Villholth11. Groundwater use and its management: Policy and institutional options in rural areas of North ChinaJ. Cao, X. Cheng and X. Li
Section 3: THEMATIC ISSUES ON GROUNDWATER IRRIGATION12. Anthropological perspectives on groundwater irrigation: Ethnographic evidence from a village in Bist Doab, PunjabR. Tiwary and J.L. Sabatier13. Social regulation of groundwater and its relevance to the existingregulatory framework in Andhra Pradesh, IndiaR.V. Rama Mohan14. Using the living wisdom of well drillers to construct digital groundwater data bases across Indo-Gangetic basinS. Krishnan, A. Islam, D. Machiwal, D.R. Sena and K.G. Villholth15. Crop per volume of diesel? The energy-squeeze on India’s small-holder irrigationT. Shah, A. Dasgupta, R. Chaubey, M. Satpathy and Y. Singh16. Managing the energy-irrigation nexus in West Bengal, IndiaA. Mukherji, P.S. Banerjee and S. Daschowdhury17. Groundwater markets in the North China plain: Impact on irrigation water use, crop yields and farmer incomeL. Zhang, J. Wang, J. Huang, S. Rozelle and Q. Huang