Groundwater Users Research Articles

Contamination of groundwater by potentially toxic elements in groundwater and potential risk to groundwater users in the Bathinda and Faridkot districts of Punjab, India

Concentrations of uranium (U) and potentially toxic elements in groundwater and associated health risks posed to residents of Bathinda and Faridkot in the SW-Punjab, India. In Bathinda and Faridkot, average uranium contents were found to be 88 µg L−1 and 61 µg L−1, with 74% and 61% samples in the two areas, respectively, being above the WHO limit of 30 µg L−1 in groundwater. Most health concern in the study area were the elevated concentrations of arsenic and mercury with average values of 176 µg L−1 and 174 µg L−1, respectively, in Bathinda, and 272 µg L−1 and 79 µg L−1, respectively, in Faridkot. An evaluation of the calculated Hazard Quotient (HQ) values indicated that HQ values in case of children for As (35.80 in Bathinda; 55.52 in Faridkot) and Hg (35.39 in Bathinda; 16.17 in Faridkot) were higher than the adults for As (27.66 in Bathinda;, 42.90 in Faridkot) and Hg (27.34 in Bathinda; 12.99 in Faridkot) and that these values were considerably higher than safe limit (HQ = 1) in the study region. This suggests that these potentially toxic elements pose significant health risks via groundwater ingestion. The investigation demonstrated the dominance of groundwater contamination by As and Hg over U with regards to cancer risks to residents of study area.

A review of physical, chemical, and hydrogeologic characteristics of stray gas migration: Implications for investigation and remediation.

Releases of natural gas into groundwater from oil and gas exploration, production, or storage (i.e., "stray gas") can pose a risk to groundwater users and landowners in the form of a fire or explosive hazard. The acute nature of stray gas risk differs from the long-term health risks posed by the ingestion or inhalation of other petroleum hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene). Stray gas also exhibits different fate and transport behaviors in the environment from other hydrocarbon contaminants, including the potential for rapid and extensive transport of free-phase gas through preferential pathways, and the resulting variable and discontinuous spatial distribution of free and dissolved gas phases. While there is extensive guidance on response actions for releases of other hydrocarbons such as benzene, there are relatively few examples available in the technical literature that discuss appropriate response measures for the investigation and remediation of stray gas impacts. This paper describes key considerations in the physical, chemical, and hydrogeological characteristics of stray gas releases and implications for the improved investigation and mitigation of associated risks.

Development of Groundwater Irrigation in Telangana State: Challenges, Management and Way Forward

Groundwater based irrigation, which was started in India as early as “Indus Civilizations” got impetus during 3rd five-year plan. In India, at present 78 m ha of irrigation potential is created and 80 percent is utilized. One of the World’s highest user of groundwater is India with 63 percent of its dynamic groundwater resources. Similarly, Telangana State is also utilizing the dynamic groundwater resources up to 65 percent. Groundwater a reliable source of irrigation with high yields and brings equity among its users as ∼99 % of structures are owned by individuals. In the state, well irrigation increased from ∼0.46 lakh ha from 1875 to 23.35 lakh ha during 2017–18 and well density increased to ∼13 wells/km2 leading to decrease in irrigation potential under each well to < 1 ha. As a result of it many challenges like water logging & salinity in canal command areas, over-exploitation leading to de-saturation of shallow aquifers, underutilization in north eastern part, groundwater pollution (both geogenic and anthropogenic) and sustainability, etc have cropped up. The management steps taken up in water sector like water transfer through KLIP, providing protected water supply through Mission Bhagiratha, de-siltation through Mission Kakatiya, forest rejuvenation through Haritha Haram, construction of various ARS, modernization of canals, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, user centred aquifer level groundwater management, tank management, IEC activities etc brought positive changes in water availability in the state more particularly surface water. In order to sustain these efforts, formation of WUA at watershed/village level for agricultural planning, change in cropping pattern from highly intensive paddy to ID crops more particularly from non-command areas, conjunctive use of water, warabandhi (on/off) method of releasing irrigation water, developing intercepting drains, soil treatment, declaring crop holidays, separate electric grids for agriculture and domestic supply, legally separating water and land rights and strict implementation of regulatory measures. The other measures suggested are policy interventions that involve regulatory mechanisms and linking village-based institutions to government departments that manage groundwater etc.

Detection of Non-functional Bore wells Using Machine Learning Algorithms

India is the largest user of ground water with approximately 27.5 million bore wells drawing over 230 cubic kilolitre per year. Bore wells are vertical drilled wells, bored into an underground water-bearing layer in the earth’s surface, to extract water for various purposes. Less rainfall, water scarcity, depletion of underground water has spearheaded the number of bore wells dug in a year. Excessive number of bore wells has led to squandering of groundwater at higher rates than the rate of water replenished and caused depletion of the groundwater levels. When the water gets dried, the motor is removed and the outer surface is not properly covered or sealed. The diameter is large enough for the child to fall inside. The inside of the bore well now non-functioning or left unused might have collapsed. According to a report, since 2009 more than 40 children fell into bore well, sadly seventy percentage of the rescue operations fail. The current paper incorporates the analysis of datasets of bore well acquired from Kaggle. A predictive model has been built by employing machine learning algorithms like Random forest, Extra-trees classifier, logistic regression ‘to predict the non-functional bore wells present which is to be reported and to be taken action in the immediate future’. The performance of the models have been evaluated by performance metrics, among which Random forest shows excellent performance in predicting non-functional killer bore wells.

Lessons from local governance and collective action efforts to manage irrigation withdrawals in Kansas

This study evaluates four groundwater management plans to increase the understanding of how local governance and collective action can be effectively implemented to manage irrigation withdrawals in Kansas. The results of our analysis demonstrate five key lessons that highlight the challenges of collective action efforts to manage common-pool resources in a developed country setting. First, the four management plans generally follow Ostrom’s design principles for collective action. However, there are important areas—particularly boundaries and allocations definition—where the management plans could be improved to better align with Ostrom’s design principles. Second, a majority of farmers agree that action is needed to reduce the rate of aquifer depletion but management plans have not substantially reduced water use. Third, management plans that allow for voluntary participation have not received more support than those that require mandatory compliance, perhaps due to the classic free-rider problem. Fourth, there is no clear evidence that heterogeneous benefits from management explain support within a management area. Fifth, groundwater users generally perceive that they have an acceptable level of information. Our analysis highlights the significant challenges facing successful collective action efforts to manage water in the USA. and that the efforts are most likely to be successful when they are small-scale, mandatory, and involve users in the formation process.

Groundwater governance: The illegality of exploitation and ways to minimize the problem.

In Brazil, there are about 2.5 million tubular wells in which 88% of them are illegal, extracting more than 17,580 Mm3/yr. This irregular use may cause sustainability issues that may be economic, social, or environmental (overexploitation, well losses and associated increases of water conflicts; aquifer contamination; and land subsidence). This paper aims to address the illegal wells in Brazil and discuss measures to minimize it. Conclusions indicate that users do not understand the aquifer dynamic and, therefore, do not have a proper understanding of problems such as loss of water quality and quantity caused by the excess of groundwater exploitation. This creates a false idea that there are no water conflicts among users, which causes a lack of engagement by society. Without groundwater users and stakeholder pressure, the government does not aim to control or close illegal wells, and the "vicious cycle" persists. The one way to break this "vicious cycle" would be programs of social communication and users' participation, coupled with improvements to the control apparatus and inspection from State institutions, making sure that there is correct management and not only legislations that are not applied.

CONFLICTS BY WATER RESOURCE USE AND THE CASE OF ARARAQUARA-SP

Abstract This work presents hydric conflicts in Brazil, its causes and effects and the case of conflicts related to the supply and demand of groundwater in the municipality of Araraquara, Brazil. In this municipality, the situation is classified as critical by the Tietê-Jacaré Basin Committee, to which it belongs. The main factors that cause conflicts in Araraquara and the key actors involved were identified. The demands of groundwater users were determined and the users responsible for most of the total demand were identified by the ABC Method. These users, even in small number, are the main potential causers for the conflicts, involving public and private water supply. Public policies related to water resources and conflicts management are also discussed and measures for conflict attenuation are proposed. Such measures should be implemented by key actors and the main groundwater users involved.

Hydrologic‐Economic Trade‐offs in Groundwater Allocation Policy Design

AbstractA common environmental externality of groundwater pumping is streamflow depletion. To manage impacts of groundwater pumping on hydrologically connected surface water systems, regulators often impose quotas, or allocations, limiting the rates of groundwater extraction. Allocations vary in their temporal flexibility, ranging from single‐year “hard caps” to multi‐year “soft caps”. Soft cap allocations allow greater flexibility for farmers, the primary users of groundwater, to adjust irrigation rates from one year to another, potentially providing greater resilience to drought but also altering hydrologic impacts of pumping. In this study, we integrate agronomic, economic, and hydrologic models to evaluate optimal irrigation decisions for a range of equivalent hard and soft cap limits, and assess trade‐offs between the resulting economic (farm profitability) and hydrologic (stream depletion) outcomes. Soft cap allocation policies consistently outperform equivalent hard caps in terms of greater farm profitability and reduced production risks. However, the economic benefits of soft caps come at the cost of higher peak and cumulative rates of streamflow depletion, with the magnitude of differences dependent on aquifer properties, well location, and the length of the soft cap allocation period. Our findings suggest that the optimal allocation design will depend on competing socioeconomic and environmental objectives, and, in some instances, may require a blended approach to efficiently achieve desired management goals.

Participatory GIS Mode of Sustainable Surface and Groundwater Management Practices Involving NGOs in India

Groundwater resources plays important role in agro-biodiversity and environmental conservation perspectives. Surface and groundwater have played a significant role in the agrarian economics in the developing economics particularly in India. At the same time, the tropical and sub-tropical India is the largest groundwater user in the world through unregulated construction and utilization of millions of private wells in the last five decades exploited groundwater availability and sustainable regeneration issues. Hence, in order to improve the surface and groundwater conservation, regeneration, management and protection for sustainable utilization of Groundwater requires a participatory and coordinated action. Nationwide, many national and regional Non Government Organisations (NGOs) are functioning in the line of effective surface and ground water management the community. The recent Geographical Information Systems (GIS) based technologies also supports for drought mitigation and climate change adaptation. This study highlights the important NGOs led sustainable Groundwater management practices under various local hydro geological settings and agro economic realities for up scaling the community driven sustainable Groundwater management.

Water balance trends in irrigated canal commands and its implications for sustainable water management in Pakistan: Evidence from 1981 to 2012

The Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) of Pakistan is a major user of surface and groundwater and provides food and economic security for about 207 million people. To assess the impact of agricultural development on water resources, we developed surface water balances for its canal commands and examined trends from 1981‐82 to 2012‐13. In this semi-arid environment, crop water use is the major water balance term. We estimated it by computing actual evapotranspiration (ETa) from two different remote sensing methods, ETLook and CMRSET, to account for method uncertainty. Net groundwater use was a small component of the water balance in most canal commands, particularly in the Sindh province. The measured or estimated known terms in the water balance did not result in its closure; and a balance term of unaccounted outflows and inflows was required to close it. Measured and readily estimated components amounted to 80 – 90% of the water balance components, with unaccounted inflows and outflows accounting for the remaining 10 – 20%. Of the measured water balance terms, rainfall showed no statistically significant trend in any canal command, whereas canal deliveries decreased significantly in many canal commands. Overall, ETa generally increased in Punjab and decreased slightly in Sindh. The magnitude of the increases in ETa differed between the ETLook and CMRSET estimates. The historical trends in the balance term (unaccounted outflows and inflows) together with falling groundwater levels show that water use is becoming less sustainable in several canal commands, especially in the Punjab province. The trend to a less sustainable position results particularly from water use in the dry Rabi season.

Groundwater Governance in Pakistan: From Colossal Development to Neglected Management

Groundwater is playing an essential role in expanding irrigated agriculture in many parts of the world. Pakistan is the third-largest user of groundwater for irrigation in the world. The surface water supplies are sufficient to irrigate 27% of the area, whereas the remaining 73% is directly or indirectly irrigated using groundwater. The Punjab province uses more than 90% of the total groundwater abstraction. Currently, 1.2 million private tubewells are working in the country, out of which 85% are in Punjab, 6.4% are in Sindh, 3.8% are in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and 4.8% are in Baluchistan. The total groundwater extraction in Pakistan is about 60 billion m3. The access to groundwater has helped farmers in securing food for the increasing population. However, unchecked groundwater exploitation has created severe environmental problems. These include rapidly falling groundwater levels in the irrigated areas and increased soil salinization problems. The groundwater levels in more than 50% of the irrigated areas of Punjab have dropped below 6 m, resulting in increased pumping cost and degraded groundwater quality. Despite hectic efforts, about 21% of the irrigated area is affected by different levels of salinity. The country has introduced numerous laws and regulations for the sustainable use and management of groundwater resources, but the success has so far been limited. Besides less respect for the law, unavailability of needed data and information, lack of political will and institutional arrangements are the primary reasons for poor groundwater management. Pakistan needs to revisit its strategies to make them adaptable to local conditions. An integrated water resource management approach that brings together relevant government departments, political leadership, knowledge institutions, and other stakeholders could be an attractive option.

Unintended consequences to groundwater from improved irrigation efficiency: Lessons from the Hinds-Rangitata Plain, New Zealand

In many countries, including New Zealand, limits on freshwater availability have led to a push toward improved irrigation efficiency via changes in irrigation application technologies, so as to increase the ‘crop per drop’. In this paper, we provide evidence of unintended consequences to groundwater arising from improved irrigation efficiency in parts of the Canterbury Plains, New Zealand. We compare groundwater levels, groundwater nitrate concentrations and stable isotope values from before and after the change in irrigation efficiency. We show that changes in irrigation methods from low efficiency border-dyke irrigation to high efficiency sprinkler irrigation has resulted in reduced recharge to groundwater and reductions in groundwater levels. Groundwater level reductions of up to 17 m have occurred in some areas. The reduced groundwater levels have impacted spring flows and required groundwater users to drill new wells to access the now deeper groundwater. The reduction in irrigation recharge has also likely contributed to increased nitrate concentrations in groundwater. In response to the unintended consequences documented in this study, managed aquifer recharge is being implemented as a means of augmenting groundwater levels, quality, and spring-fed waterways. As such, increased irrigation efficiency may not be reducing water use in this region. A regional water balance would be required to determine if water savings are occurring overall.

Sustaining Coupled Irrigation Infrastructures: Multiple Instruments for Multiple Dilemmas

In order to smooth the availability of water and address water scarcity, shared irrigation infrastructure is constructed in many irrigation systems. However, maintaining contributions to shared infrastructure has grown increasingly challenging as private infrastructure, such as groundwater pumps, have become attractive substitutes. This problem is especially acute in the semiarid regions of South Asia. We model South Indian tank irrigation systems as an example of a coupled infrastructure system that captures these real-world challenges. We developed a replicator dynamic model to analyze the interactions of multiple policy instruments to address interlinked appropriation and provisioning dilemmas in a coupled infrastructure system. We demonstrate that a fixed fee levied on groundwater users combined with highly differentiated fees on tank users can improve the provision of the shared tank significantly, yield higher profits, and greater equality of livelihoods. However, the presence of private infrastructure limits the ability to credibly implement sufficiently high fees. This institutional complexity is decidedly “second best” – falling well short of the outcomes available if the substitution to private infrastructure were more effectively managed.

Some Taxes Are Better Than Others: An Economic Experiment Analyzing Groundwater Management in a Spatially Explicit Aquifer

AbstractThis paper develops a coupled hydrologic‐economic model that estimates the effects of six tax institutions that theory predicts will lead to equal amounts of aquifer withdrawal. That said, the distributive effects of the tax institutions are expected to differ because each involves different combinations of tax thresholds and side payments (returned tax revenue). The tax policies can lead to groundwater users being worse off than they would be using an unmanaged aquifer. This study explores whether the distributive impacts of specific policies that have equal marginal incentives lead to differences in the behavior of participants in an experiment involving a common pool groundwater resource. The results reveal that each of the tax policies results in approximately the same reduction in resource use but affects participants' earnings and opinions regarding the policies differently. A tax imposed on groundwater use above a threshold and without a side payment is most effective in increasing the net social benefit associated with using the aquifer; participant earnings under that scheme are almost equal to earnings from an unmanaged aquifer (1.04% less), and overall social efficiency is greater (4.34%). Unfortunately, participants tend to prefer an unmanaged aquifer and tax policies with high side‐payments—treatments that led to lower overall social efficiency. The evidence suggests that aquifer management may require a two‐fold approach: (1) a carefully selected threshold that can make water users financially indifferent between a managed and unmanaged aquifer and (2) education to increase the political acceptability of the managed aquifer policy.

Exploring farmers’ perceptions about their depleting groundwater resources using path analysis: implications for groundwater overdraft and income diversification

Iran is among the world’s top five groundwater exploiters and, similar to many countries in the world, aquifers in Iran have been rapidly depleted over the past decades primarily as a result of groundwater use by farmers. This research was conducted to explore whether the perceptions of pistachio growers in Rafsanjan Plain, Iran (a global center for pistachio production), on the depleting groundwater resources have led to the conservation of the resources and/or income diversification. In addition, the association between these perceptions and factors representing knowledge of growers was examined. To this end, two path models were developed and tested using path analysis and logistic regression. The results indicate that growers who had more pessimistic perceptions of the groundwater resources in Rafsanjan were more likely to increase groundwater extraction; however, these growers were also more likely to seek external employment (income diversification). The final path models suggest attitudes toward groundwater conservation were the most important determinants of pumping behavior, while perceptions of the state of the groundwater were the most important determinants of income diversification. Whether Iranian policies to increase awareness of falling water tables could succeed in securing water conservation would depend on the ‘balance’ of these two forces—an increase in pumping with increased pessimism or a potential decrease in pumping through income diversification. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the results for interventions aimed at changing not only the groundwater users’ decisions about groundwater use, but also their decisions about income diversification.

Gender-Related Differences in Flood Risk Perception and Behaviours among Private Groundwater Users in the Republic of Ireland.

Extreme weather events including flooding can have severe personal, infrastructural, and economic consequences, with recent evidence pointing to surface flooding as a pathway for the microbial contamination of private groundwater supplies. There is a pressing need for increasingly focused information and awareness campaigns to highlight the risks posed by extreme weather events and appropriate subsequent post-event actions. To date, little is known about the presence, directionality or magnitude of gender-related differences regarding flood risk awareness and behaviour among private groundwater users, a particularly susceptible sub-population due to an overarching paucity of infrastructural regulation across many regions. The current study investigated gender-related differences in flood risk perception and associated mitigation behaviours via a cross-sectional, national survey of 405 (168 female, 237 male) private groundwater supply users. The developed survey instrument assessed socio-demographic profile, previous flood experience, experiential and conjectural health behaviours (contingent on previous experience), and Risk, Attitude, Norms, Ability, Self-regulation (RANAS) framework questions. Statistically significant gender differences were found between both ‘Norm—Descriptive’ and ‘Ability—Self-efficacy’ RANAS elements (p < 0.05). Female respondents reported a lower level of awareness of the need for post-flood action(s) (8.9% vs. 16.5%), alongside a perceived “lack of information” as a reason for not testing their domestic well (4.9% vs. 11.5%). Conversely, male respondents were more likely to report awareness of their well location in relation to possible contamination sources (96.6% vs. 89.9%) and awareness of previous water testing results (98.9% vs. 93.0%). Gender-related gaps exist within the studied private groundwater reliant cohort, a sub-population which has to date remained under-studied within the context of climate change and extreme weather events. Accordingly, findings suggest that gender-focused communication and education may represent an effective tool for protecting current and future generations of global groundwater users.

HESS Opinions: The myth of groundwater sustainability in Asia

Abstract. Across the arid regions of water-stressed countries of Asia, groundwater production for irrigated agriculture has led to water-level declines that continue to worsen. For India, China, Pakistan, Iran, and others, it is unrealistic to expect groundwater sustainability in a verifiable sense to emerge. Fragmented governance and the general inability to bring traditional socio-economic tools to bear on reducing groundwater demands have impeded progress to groundwater sustainability. For India and Pakistan, where operational management is at the level of states and provinces, there is no capacity to regulate. Also in both China and India, the tremendous numbers of groundwater users, large and small, confound regulation of groundwater. With business as usual, groundwater-related problems receive insufficient attention, a situation referred to as an “accelerating and invisible groundwater crisis” (Biswas et al., 2017). Another obstacle to sustainability comes from trying to manage something you do not understand. With sustainable management, there are significant burdens in the needed technical know-how, in collecting necessary data, and in funding advanced technologies. Thus, there are risks that Iran, India, and Pakistan will run short of groundwater from over-pumping in some places and will also be adversely affected by global climate change.

Property rights and groundwater management in the High Plains Aquifer

Groundwater is an important natural resource that needs to be managed dynamically. Ideally, institutions governing property rights to the groundwater of low-recharge aquifers should not discourage or disincentivize groundwater users from dynamic management. We develop an empirical model to examine whether agricultural groundwater users faced with prior appropriation property rights to groundwater in western Kansas exhibit dynamic, forward-looking behavior consistent with dynamic management. We find that although farmers are allotted a time-invariant maximum amount of groundwater that they can extract each year, they still behave in a manner consistent with dynamic management. Their groundwater extraction decisions are not significantly affected by the quantity they are authorized to extract, but are instead affected by expected future crop prices, expected future energy prices, and groundwater extraction by neighbors. Our results provide evidence that farmers manage their groundwater resource dynamically, even if their property rights do not necessarily encourage or incentivize them to do so.

Groundwater Management in California’s Central Valley: A Focus on Disadvantaged Communities

In the state of California, groundwater serves 85% of Californians for at least part of their water. During the last drought (2011–2016), a high proportion of domestic wells went dry, most of which were located in disadvantaged communities (DACs) in the California Central Valley. Prior to 2014, voluntary groundwater management plans (GMPs) existed as one of the main groundwater governance options. However, little is known about the adoption of these GMPs and their effect on groundwater management. This case study analyzes the adoption of voluntary GMPs statewide and their impact on DACs that primarily rely on groundwater for drinking water. Our analysis shows low adoption of voluntary GMPs (15% for Assembly Bill [AB] 3030 and 12% for Senate Bill [SB] 1938) by local agencies. Even though GMPs were most frequently adopted in the Central Valley, the majority of domestic well shortages and DACs are concentrated there. Furthermore, water agencies, such as irrigation and water districts, had the highest adoption rate (70%), followed by cities (18%) and counties (7%), which indicates that institutional capacity is key for groundwater management. However, since only public agencies were eligible to adopt GMPs, the inclusion of private groundwater users within public agencies is questionable. In sum, the lack of voluntary GMP adoption shows that they were unsuccessful in incentivizing or facilitating institutional action. Finally, restrictions on eligibility to design GMPs underscore the persistent challenge of involving all users in local water management, which may be key to close the gap between policy design and socio-ecological outcomes.

A Fifty-Year Experience of Groundwater Governance: The Case Study of Gakunan Council for Coordinated Groundwater Pumping, Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Groundwater protection, which is effected by multiple actors at multiple levels using multiple instruments, is commonly termed “groundwater governance”. Although the concept has attracted increasing attention since the 1990s, several of its associated measures remain to be fully implemented. Most are still inchoate strategies and improvement is expected to be a gradual, long-term process. The Gakunan Council for Coordinated Groundwater Pumping (CCGP), which was established, in 1967, in Fuji City in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, is an exceptional case. The Gakunan CCCP was created to deal with a common-pool resource problem where massive groundwater pumping caused seawater intrusion in the city’s coastal area due to the low cost of extraction and incomplete groundwater ownership. The Gakunan CCCP succeeded in recovering elevation of groundwater tables by connecting efforts between the public and private sectors, including information sharing, legal authority to regulate groundwater, investment in alternative water supplies, internal subsidies between groundwater users, and charge for water disposal. Previous studies have iterated that the fostering of participation from various stakeholders and dividing labor between them appropriately are key elements of successful groundwater governance. This paper investigates these factors, explores the importance of the metagovernor as coordinator, and offers a fresh perspective on the significance of groundwater governance.