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Deep Wells and Prudence : Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in IndiaIndia is the largest groundwater user in the world, with an estimated usage of around 230 cubic kilometers per year, more than a quarter of the global total. With more than 60 percent of irrigated agriculture and 85 percent of drinking water supplies dependent on it, groundwater is a vital resource for rural areas in India. Reliance of urban and industrial waste supplies on groundwater is also becoming increasingly significant in India. Through the construction of millions of private wells, there has been a phenomenal growth in the exploitation of groundwater in the last five decades. The potential social and economic consequences of continued weak or nonexistent groundwater management are serious, as aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of the most populated and economically productive areas. The implications are disturbing for attainment of the millennium development goals, for sustaining economic growth and local livelihoods, and for environmental and fiscal sustainability. The consequences will be most severe for the poor. Furthermore, climate change will put additional stress on groundwater resources; while at the same time will have an unpredictable impact on groundwater recharge and availability.
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Kenya Groundwater Governance Case StudyThis report presents a case study on
 groundwater governance in Kenya. The objectives of the study
 were to: (a) describe groundwater resource and socioeconomic
 settings for four selected aquifers; (b) describe governance
 arrangements for groundwater management in Kenya; and (c)
 identify the relevance of these arrangements for planning
 and implementing climate change mitigation measures. The
 report provides a comprehensive strategy to develop
 effective groundwater management and a pilot groundwater
 management plan. Kenya's draft Policy for the
 Protection of Groundwater provides most of the requirements
 for improving groundwater governance, including
 participation and empowerment of groundwater users,
 decentralization of management to local level, integration
 of surface and groundwater management, improving monitoring
 and data collection, identifying sites for managed aquifer
 recharge (MAR), mapping strategic aquifers and conjunctive
 use opportunities, and identifying groundwater conservation
 areas. Groundwater management decision making is
 sector-based and on the whole ad hoc; there is no mechanism
 for coordination and for fostering cross-sector linkages.
 Consequently, the management of groundwater resources has
 continued to be carried on in isolation from the management
 of land and other land-based resources, with the inevitable
 consequence that the implications of management decisions in
 critical areas such as physical are planning, land use
 planning, and agricultural activities have often been
 overlooked. At the same time, groundwater decision making
 remains overly centralized, with limited real involvement of
 stakeholder units, such as catchment area advisory
 committees (CAACs) and water resources user associations (WRUAs).
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Kenya : Groundwater Governance Case StudyThis report presents a case study on groundwater governance in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: (a) describe groundwater resource and socioeconomic settings for four selected aquifers; (b) describe governance arrangements for groundwater management in Kenya; and (c) identify the relevance of these arrangements for planning and implementing climate change mitigation measures. The report provides a comprehensive strategy to develop effective groundwater management and a pilot groundwater management plan. Kenya's draft Policy for the Protection of Groundwater provides most of the requirements for improving groundwater governance, including participation and empowerment of groundwater users, decentralization of management to local level, integration of surface and groundwater management, improving monitoring and data collection, identifying sites for managed aquifer recharge (MAR), mapping strategic aquifers and conjunctive use opportunities, and identifying groundwater conservation areas. Groundwater management decision making is sector-based and on the whole ad hoc; there is no mechanism for coordination and for fostering cross-sector linkages. Consequently, the management of groundwater resources has continued to be carried on in isolation from the management of land and other land-based resources, with the inevitable consequence that the implications of management decisions in critical areas such as physical are planning, land use planning, and agricultural activities have often been overlooked. At the same time, groundwater decision making remains overly centralized, with limited real involvement of stakeholder units, such as catchment area advisory committees (CAACs) and water resources user associations (WRUAs).