Abstract
Groundwater is a major source of water supply throughout the World. It is the largest available source of freshwater, which supports human health, socio-economic development, and ecological diversity. However, over-exploitation and the growing water pollution are threatening our ecosystems as well as the life of our future generations. How to maintain long-term sustainable yield from aquifers is a serious global concern, particularly in the developing countries. The main intent of this chapter is to highlight the constraints and challenges of sustainable development and management of groundwater resources in the developing nations. This chapter also intends to suggest ways for improving water resources management in general and groundwater management in particular. Firstly, the importance of freshwater is highlighted followed by an overview of growing problem of water crisis in the World and India. Secondly, the constraints and challenges of groundwater management in the developing nations are described. Thirdly, the modern concepts of water management, together with the principles of sustainable groundwater management are discussed. Finally, considering the enormity and severity of water problems in the developing countries (including India), a wakeup call is sounded. It is emphasized that the modern concepts coupled with emerging tools and techniques for water management hold a great promise for the sustainable management of groundwater resources in the developed and developing countries.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aiyar S (2003) Thirsty India. India Today 28:38–45
Alley WM, Leake SA (2004) The journey from safe yield to sustainability. Ground Water 42:12–16
Alley WM, Reilly TE, Franke OL (1999) Sustainability of ground-water resources, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1186, USGS
ASCE (1998) Sustainability criteria for water resource systems. American Society of Civil Engineers Task Committee for Sustainability Criteria, ASCE, Reston
Ayibotele NB (1992) The world’s water: assessing the resource. In: Proceedings of the international conference on water and the environment: development issues for the 21st century, Dublin, 26–31 Jan 1992, pp 1.1–1.25
Biswas AK (1992) Sustainable water development: a global perspective. Water Int 17:68–80
Biswas AK, Tortajada C, Izquierdo R (eds) (2009) Water management in 2020 and beyond. Springer, Berlin
Bocanegra E, Hérnandez M, Usunoff E (eds) (2005) Groundwater and human development. IAH SP publication 6. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon
Bredehoeft JD (1997) Safe yield and the water budget myth. Ground Water 35:929
Bredehoeft JD (2002) The water budget myth revisited: why hydrogeologists model. Ground Water 40:340–345
Brown LR (2000) Falling water tables in China may soon raise food prices everywhere. Earth Policy Institute, Earth Policy Alerts. http://www.earth-policy.org/Alerts
CGWB (2006) Dynamic groundwater resources of India (as on March 2004). Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Ministry of Water Resources, New Delhi
de Villiers M (2001) Water: the fate of our most precious resource. Mariner Books, Mifflin/Boston
Dovers SR, Handmer JW (1995) Ignorance, the precautionary principle, and sustainability. Ambio 24:92–97
Falkenmark M (2007a) Global warming: water the main mediator. Water Front 2:6–7
Falkenmark M (2007b) Shift in thinking to address the 21st century hunger gap: moving focus from blue to green water management. Water Resour Manage 21:3–18
Falkenmark M, Rockstrom J (2004) Balancing water for humans and nature: the new approach in ecohydrology. Earthscan, London
Foster S (1998) Groundwater: assessing vulnerability and promoting protection of a threatened resource. In: Proceedings of the 8th Stockholm water symposium, Sweden, 10–13 Aug 1998, pp 79–90
Foster S, Chilton J, Cardy F, Schiffler M, Moench M (2000) Groundwater in rural development: facing the challenges of supply and resource sustainability. World Bank technical paper no. 463, The World Bank, Washington, DC
Garg NK, Hassan Q (2007) Alarming scarcity of water in India. Curr Sci 93:932–941
Gleick PH (1996) Global water resources in the 21st century: where should we go and how should we get there? In: Proceedings of the 1995 Stockholm water symposium on water quality management: heading for a new epoch, Stockholm, vol 5, pp 73–78
Grafton RQ, Hussey K (eds) (2011) Water resources planning and management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Gupta DB (1992) The importance of water resources for urban socio-economic development. In: Proceedings of the international conference on water and the environment: development issues for the 21st century, Dublin, 26–31 Jan 1992, pp 5.1–5.19
GWP (2000) Integrated water resources management. TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) background papers no. 4, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Stockholm
GWP (2004) Integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans by 2005. Technical committee background papers no. 10, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Stockholm
GWP (2009a) GWP strategy 2009–2013. Global Water Partnership, Stockholm
GWP and INBO (2009) A handbook for integrated water resources management in Basins. Global Water Partnership/International Network of Basin Organizations, Stockholm/Paris
GWPTEC (2006) How IWRM will contribute to achieving the MDGs. Catalyzing change series policy brief 4, Global Water Partnership Technical Committee (GWPTEC), Global Water Partnership, Stockholm, 8pp
GWPTEC (2007) Climate change adaptation and integrated water resource management: an initial overview. Catalyzing change series policy brief 5, Global Water Partnership Technical Committee (GWPTEC), Global Water Partnership, Stockholm
Harris R, Baveye PC (2008) Water on the table: Sigma Xi’s Year of Water affords unique opportunities to share hydrological information. J Hydrol 354:v–vii
Hiscock KM, Rivett MO, Davison RM (eds) (2002) Sustainable groundwater development. Special publication no. 193, Geological Society, London
Humphreys WF (2009) Hydrogeology and groundwater ecology: does each inform the other? Hydrogeol J 17:5–21
IFRC (2001) World disasters report 2001. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva
IPCC (2001) Third assessment report: climate change 2001. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Geneva. http://www.ipcc.ch. Accessed March 2005
IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
IWMI (2001) Strategic plan 2000–2005. Improving water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature. International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Jha MK, Kamii Y, Chikamori K (2001) Irrigation and water management: an Indian perspective. Rural Environ Eng 40:46–66
Jha MK, Kamii Y, Chikamori K (2009) Cost-effective approaches for sustainable groundwater management in alluvial aquifer systems. Water Resour Manage 23:219–233
Kalf FRP, Woolley DR (2005) Applicability and methodology for determining sustainable yield in groundwater systems. Hydrogeol J 13:295–312
Kauai Declaration (2007) Ethnobotany, the science of survival: a declaration from Kauai. Econ Bot 61:1–2
Konikow LF, Kendy E (2005) Groundwater depletion: a global problem. Hydrogeol J 13:317–320
Loáiciga HA (2002) Sustainable groundwater exploitation. Int Geol Rev 44:1115–1121
Loucks DP, van Beek E (2005) Water resources systems planning and management: an introduction to methods, models and applications, Studies and reports in hydrology. UNESCO, Paris
Maimone M (2004) Defining and managing sustainable yield. Ground Water 42:809–814
Molden D (ed) (2007) Summary of water for food, water for life: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. Earthscan, London
MOWR (1999) Integrated water resource development: a plan for action. Report of the national commission for integrated water resources development plan, vol 1. Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR), Government of India, New Delhi
Oki T, Kanae S (2006) Global hydrological cycles and world water resources. Science 313:1068–1072
Pahl-Wostl C (2007) Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change. Water Resour Manage 21:49–62
Postel SL (1993) Water and agriculture. In: Gleick PH (ed) Water in crisis: a guide to the world’s fresh water resources. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 56–66
Postel SL (1998) Water for food production: will there be enough in 2025? BioScience 48:629–638
Rijsberman FR (2006) Water scarcity: fact or fiction? Agric Water Manage 80:5–22
Rodell M, Velicogna I, Famiglietti JS (2009) Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India. Nature 460:999–1002
Rodriguez D, Molden D (2007) Water for food, water for life: influencing what happens next. Water Front 2:12–13
Rogers P (2006) Water governance, water security and water sustainability. In: Rogers P, Llamas MR, Martínez-Cortina L (eds) Water crisis: myth or reality? Taylor & Francis, London, pp 3–35
Shiklomanov IA (1997) Comprehensive assessment of the freshwater resources of the world: assessment of water resources and water availability in the world. Comprehensive assessment of the freshwater resources, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva, 88 pp
Shiklomanov IA, Rodda JC (eds) (2003) World water resources at the beginning of the 21st century. UNESCO/Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Sophocleous M (1997) Managing water resources systems: why “safe yield” is not sustainable. Ground Water 35:561
Sophocleous M (2000) From safe yield to sustainable development of water resources: the Kansas experience. J Hydrol 235:27–43
Sophocleous M (2002) Interactions between groundwater and surface water: the state of the science. Hydrogeol J 10:52–67
Sophocleous M (2005) Groundwater recharge and sustainability in the high plains aquifer in Kansas, USA. Hydrogeol J 13:351–365
Steffen W, Jaeger J, Carson DJ, Bradshaw C (eds) (2002) Challenges of a changing earth. Springer, Berlin
Steube C, Richter S, Griebler C (2009) First attempts towards an integrative concept for the ecological assessment of groundwater ecosystems. Hydrogeol J 17:23–35
Todd DK, Mays LW (2005) Groundwater hydrology, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York
United Nations (UN) (1995) World urbanization prospects. The 1994 revisions. United Nations, New York
UN (2003) Water for people, water for life. The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR), UNESCO Publishing and Berghahn Books, UK
UN Water (2007) Coping with water scarcity: challenge of the twenty-first century. Report for World Water Day 2007. http://www.unwater.org/wwd07/downloads/ documents /escarcity.pdf. Accessed 23 Mar 2007
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2007) Human development report 2007/2008. United Nations Development Program, United Nations Plaza, New York
UNESCO (2003) The United Nations world water development report: water for people, water for life. World water assessment program, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris
UNESCO (2009) The 3rd United Nations world water development report: water in a changing world. World Water Assessment Program, UNESCO, Paris
UNICEF and WHO (2008) Progress on drinking water and sanitation: special focus on sanitation. UNICEF/WHO, New York/Geneva
van der Keur P, Henriksen HJ, Refsgaard JC, Brugnach M, Pahl-Wostl C, Dewulf A, Buiteveld H (2008) Identification of major sources of uncertainty in current IWRM practice: illustrated for the Rhine basin. Water Resour Manage 22:1677–1708
Vörösmarty CJ, McIntyre PB, Gessner MO, Dudgeon D, Prusevich A, Green P, Glidden S, Bunn SE, Sullivan CA, Liermann RC, Davies PM (2010) Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Nature 467:555–561
Wang C, Blackmore JM (2009) Resilience concepts for water resource systems. J Water Resour Plan Manage 135:528–536
WCED (1987) Our common future. World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)/Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Winter TC, Harvey JW, Franke OL, Alley WM (1998) Ground water and surface water: a single resource. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139, USGS, Reston
Zektser IS (2000) Groundwater and the environment: applications for the global community. Lewis, Boca Raton
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jha, M.K. (2013). Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Developing Countries: Constraints and Challenges. In: Ramkumar, M. (eds) On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32917-3_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32917-3_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32916-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32917-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)