Governance
Aquifer management approach towards utilisation of groundwater resources- a debate
To deal with the rapidly depleting groundwater resources it is necessary to initiate a national programme on aquifer management
- Aquifer mapping of the entire country at an appropriate scale
- Data generation at the right scale
- Characterisation of aquifers
- Evolving strategies and protocols for sustainable management of available groundwater
- Running groundwater management pilots
- Development of an appropriate legal framework
- Scaling up the institutional framework
The article ends by highlighting that the question of groundwater governance needs to be understood at two levels:
- Firstly, that efficient governance will need to build on community based systems of decisionmaking that would involve community support and empowerment
- Secondly, it would require reengineering of the existing legal framework and groundwater management institutions to play arole in facilitationg and enabling community action.
This paper appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly, and has been sourced here with permission of the authors.
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