Analysing the role of politics in groundwater management – research in Ethiopia, Palestine and Yemen - Conflicts Over Natural Resources in the Global South - page 73

Figure 5.1 The context of groundwater management.

5.2 GROUNDWATER AND MANAGEMENT OF COMMONS

Groundwater is an archetypal example of a commons. It is accessible by many and
the knowledge of the resource is often limited. At present, an estimated 70% of the
world's population depends on groundwater for its basic water services. In 51% of
countries, groundwater withdrawal tops 100 m 3 per capita annually. Groundwater has
created the fragile miracles of accelerated agricultural production in important rural
economies in South Asia, China, North Africa and the Middle East. In large irrigation
systems in South Asia and North Africa, 30-50% of the water used by farms comes
from groundwater, creating so-called conjunctive management systems. Other than
surface water development, much of the groundwater development is done by private,
individual initiatives. In several areas, groundwater is also the resource that still pro-
vides the means to overcome drought or climate change, particularly if groundwater
development is combined with the recharge and retention of rainwater, run-off and
flood water. Despite all of these achievements, there are numerous groundwater dis-
asters - areas with lowered groundwater tables, unbalanced economic and ecological
systems, and groundwater quality getting out of hand due to intrusion, upconing or
pollution (Wijnen et al. 2012).
Both the promise and the problems have garnered attention for managed ground-
water development. Yet, by and large, effective groundwater management is not
common in spite of the interests at stake. Groundwater management makes appear-
ances on the political agenda as a captive resource (the greening of) or an area of
concern (water security) and competition (race to the bottom). The development of
groundwater has created institutional responses (van der Gun 2012). However, effec-
tive real-world management of groundwater through regulating usage, protection of
quality or systematic replenishment of the water buffer is rare, especially in low-income
countries (Wijnen et al. 2012).
Groundwater as a resource is unique in a number of aspects:

Groundwater is more widespread than surface water and the largest non-frozen
source of fresh water.

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Physical boundaries of groundwater reserves generally do not match with admin-
istrative boundaries.

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