The Global Water Partnership (GWP) released a Technical Committee (TEC) Background Paper titled 'Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture,' which presents an approach to: reform perverse subsidies and policies; build governance and rule enforcement capacities; and introduce various administrative investments.
29 August 2014: The Global Water Partnership (GWP) released a Technical Committee (TEC) Background Paper, titled ‘Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture,’ which presents an approach to: reform perverse subsidies and policies; build governance and rule enforcement capacities; and introduce various administrative investments.
The paper includes sections on: groundwater and global agriculture; the global groundwater economy; economic significance of groundwater irrigation; instruments of groundwater governance; groundwater governance experiences; and conclusions – a contingency approach to groundwater governance.
The paper explores groundwater governance mechanisms including: administrative regulation; economic instruments; water-saving technologies; tradable property rights or entitlements; community aquifer management; supply augmentation; conjunctive-use management; energy pricing and rationing; and managing land use changes. The paper includes case studies from the US, Mexico, Spain, arid countries and monsoon Asia.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) founded the GWP in 1996 to promote integrated water resources management (IWRM). [Publication: Groundwater Governance and Irrigated Agriculture] [GWP Press Release]