Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture. By Tushaar Shah.

Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture:Global Challenges and Emerging Experience

Tushaar ShahSenior Fellow, International Water Management Institute, Colombo

Member, TEC, Global Water Partnership

Global Water Partnership

August 29, 2014

Stockholm

Water for a food-secure world

Highlights

• a wicked problem everywhere (including California!).

• work in progress throughout the world.

• Results in US, Mexico, Spain, Chile needs critical

assessment rather than unquestioning acceptance

• Examples of evolving GwG regime in the developing world:

Barind in Bangladesh, GwG pilots in China and Gujarat;

Morocco’s PPP based conjunctive water use program.

• GwG versus aquifer management

• IWRM= Creating preconditions to success of PGM


Several regions of the world have witnessed explosive growth

in groundwater use in agriculture since the 1960’s..


Arid Agrarian

Systems

Industrial

Agriculture

Systems

Small-holder

Intensive Farming

Systems

Extensive

Pastoralim

Examples Jordan, Iran California,

Australia

South Asia,

North China

Sub-Saharan

AfricaArea served by groundwater > 6 m. ha

irrigation

~ 15 m. ha

irrigation

> 70-100 m. ha

irrigation

> 500 m. ha

grazing areaAgrarian pop/km2 of farm land 40-50 <1-5 300-800 10-20

% of geographic area under

cultivation1-5 5-15 40-60 5-15

% of cultivated area under

irrigation30-90 2-15 40-70 ~ 5

% of geographic area under

groundwater irrigation0.1-0.4 0.001-1.5 5-25 <0.001

Driver of ag. groundwater use Only source Wealth

creation

Intensive

diversification

Stock

wateringGW contribution to poverty

alleviationLow Very low Very high High

Four Groundwater Socio-ecologies


Drivers of Agricultural Groundwater Demand


Groundwater and the poor: US$ 300-500/ha

Groundwater and profits

(US $ 6000-25000/ha)


Dominant GWG model through 1990’s: Groundwater as the easement of private property in land is the source of abuse.

• Unbundle groundwater rights from land rights by making water state property

• Issue usufructory rights in groundwater through permit/quota entitlements;

• Make these tradable;

• A system of monitoring individual withdrawals against allotted rights/permits/concessions

• Groundwater districts or user organizations to manage and enforce entitlements


Instruments of groundwater governance

Ground

water or

surrogate

pricing

Tradable

entitle-

ments

Administrative

regulation

(e.g. zoning,

siting rules)

Community

aquifer

management

Recharge/

imported

water/

conjunctive

use

Indirect

approaches

US: Kansas � � � �

Australia � �

Mexico � �

Spain � �

China

(new pilots)

� Progressive � � �

Iran � �

Oman � �

Chile � �

Jordan � �

Pakistan �

Bangladesh � Barind

smart-meters

India � West

Bengal metered

power

� [APFMGS] � Saurashtra

recharge

movement

� Gujarat’s

Jyotigram


Country Experiences

Country GwG strategy Groundwater

impacts

Remarks

1. Kansas, US Managed depletion through

Intensive Institutional ManagementSustained

Depletion

High management cost

1. Texas,

California, US

Managed depletion through Open

access, bar in endangered aquifersSustained

Depletion

“let locals figure it out”

2. Mexico COTA’s, tradable entitlements, water

markets but heavy energy subsidiesSustained

Depletion

Farmer sabotage of GwG

regime; enforcement

cost, defunct COTAs

3 Chile Tradable property rights Depletion (over-

allocation)

Farmers and rights

manager sabotage

4. Oman, Jordan,

Saudi

Intensive administrative regulation;

economic incentives, desalinationv. limited

successes

Strong state

5 Chinese pilots

in Hebei and

Gansu

‘Text-book solution’; state-directed

community management of

groundwater

successful in

depletion control

Needed: strong local

authority structures;

GwG refugees

6. Andhra

Pradesh, India

Community aquifer mgt through

farmer involvement in monitoringSome success Sustainable???

free energy;

dependence on prop ups

7. Gujarat, India Indirect approach: recharge movement;

power rationingSome success; sustained so far

Power rationing; GW

recharge; conjunctive

mgt;


“…there seems no one best way… the right thing to

do depends on a complex variety of socio-

economic and political contingencies. ”


Societies evolve their groundwater governance regimes

to respond to their unique contingencies

Chinese pilots:

economic, community,

technology,

enforcement:

The Ostrom Principles

Strong local authority

structures incentivized

for GwG

US, Australia: Tradable

entitlements

settlers’ need for

security of water tenure

Oman:

administrative regulation

TINA plus Sultan

Mexico, Chile: Tradable

entitlements mixed with

populism

Industrial farmers’ need

for security of water

tenure

India: no GwG, perverse

incentives, energy-gw co-

management

weak authority structures,

High transaction cost,

Vote-bank politics


Disabling

Contingencies

Enabling

Contingencies

National and local authority

structures

Weak Strong (China, Oman,

Myanmar)

Organization of the groundwater

Economy

Numerous small

users

Few large users

% of population dependent on

farming

High Very small

Groundwater’s significance to

national food and livelihoods security

High Low (US; Mexico;

Spain)

Capacity, reach and effectiveness of

water bureaucracy

Low (South Asia) High (China, Kansas)

Perverse Incentives in GW irrigation

(energy subsidies; tube well

subsidies; output subsidies)

Present: India, Iran,

Syria, Mexico

Absent (China,

Pakistan, US,

Australia)

Productivity of groundwater irrigation Low (South Asia) High (China; Mexico,

California, Spain)


Three Examples of Groundwater Governance in

Developing Country Context

• Idealized groundwater governance in

Chinese pilots

• Barind area public tubewell irrigation in

North-west Bangladesh

• Indirect instruments of groundwater

governance in Gujarat


Government enforced Ostrom-style PGM in China:Quinxu county in Shanxi (Le and Perret 2012)

• Tubewells modernized & fitted with smart-card readers

• Village Committee incentivized and empowered to

enforce PGM

• Sustainable yield determined

• Per capita groundwater quota allocated

• Water price ladder established:

• 30%> quota=50% higher price/kWh

• 30-50%>quota=100% higher price/kWh

• >50> quota=200% higher price/kWh

• Impact?

• 20% decline in groundwater draft;

• 40% decline in area irrigated

• “close the wells, abandon the land” Unit Qingdepu Xihuaiyuan Xiaowang

Quota for the village 10,000 m3 70 98 50

Quota/mu (ha) m3 240 (3582) 240 (3582) 180 (2687)

Groundwater lifted/kWh m3 1.4 1.8 1.5

Price within quota US $/kWh 0.091 0.072 0.101

Irrigation cost/mu with allotted quota US $ 21.8 17.3 18.2

Irrigation cost/mu with 125 % of allotted quota US $ 36.9 28.8 24.5

Irrigation cost/mu with 145 % of allotted quota US $ 45.6 39.0 33.41

Price for withdrawals <quota +30 m3/mu US $/kWh 0.123 0.096 0.109

Price for withdrawals <quota +30 m3/mu US $/kWh 0.131 0.112 0.128


Barind Area Development Project

• 400,000 ha of previously dry areas brought under public

tubewell irrigation;

• Buried pipe distribution system;

• Tubewells equipped with smart card readers;

• Farmers can buy coupons or use smart cards from local

distributors;

• Measured volumes on-demand

• Volumetric pricing built in

• “self-regulating groundwater development”


Figure 1 a Electricity Network Before Figure 1 b Electricity Network after

Gujarat: Groundwater depletion sustained by perverse energy subsidies as in Mexico..


Community-driven water harvesting and groundwater recharge

movement in Saurashtra has revitalized dying agriculture

Meghal basin drainage network Profusion of check dams built by people,

with government support


Gujarat’s agriculture has been growing @ 9+%

This growth is energized by groundwater irrigation.

Yet, Gujarat is the only state in western India where

groundwater levels are improving..


Groundwater

Abuse:

“wicked

problem”

Groundwater

Governance :

“work-in-

progress”

Way forward:

“fit concepts

to contexts”

IWRM=

Understand the problem+

Understand the context+

Learn from others+

Craft your solution

"Know thy self, know

thy enemy. A thousand

battles, a thousand

victories." - Sun Tzu


Reform perverse incentives on input

side (e.g. energy subsidies) Reform perverse incentives on output

side (e.g. wheat-rice support prices in

India)

Reform perverse incentives on water

saving technologies)

Enhance awareness about

groundwater ecology through

participatory platforms

Register of tubewells;

participatory aquifer plans

Conjunctive management of surface

and groundwater

Demand management options

linked to New water supplies

Community aquifer

management

Bottom-up Sequencing of Interventions:

Groundwater Governance Protocol

Decommissioning wells and

irrigation areas

Develop groundwater

governance capacities and

participatory institutions

Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture. By Tushaar Shah.

Presentations & Public Speaking

Transcript of Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture. By Tushaar Shah.