August 2012: The Global Water Partnership (GWP) has published a paper on “Groundwater Resources and Irrigated Agriculture – Making a Beneficial Relation More Sustainable.” Identifying agriculture as the largest consumer of groundwater resources globally, the paper notes that aquifers are facing depletion and degradation. It finds that effective policies take local conditions into account, have institutional arrangements for implementation, involve stakeholders and align development goals with the availability of groundwater.

The document, part of the GWP’s “Perspective Papers” series, assesses the current situation, including patterns and drivers of intensive groundwater use, the benefits of groundwater use for agricultural irrigation, resource sustainability concerns, hazards of excessive groundwater exploitation, how to confront the harsh realities of weakly-recharged aquifers, and the groundwater quality impacts of irrigated agriculture. The paper then examines how sustainability can be improved, identifying a “pragmatic framework” for solving problems that includes community participation and self-regulation, groundwater regulation and abstraction fees, and alignment with food and energy macro-policies.

As challenges, the paper identifies weak groundwater resource accounting in many developing countries, the “socialization” of responsible groundwater use and national policies to increase cultivation of biofuels. It concludes with an urgent call to address groundwater sustainability issues, highlighting the potential of groundwater reverses as an adaptation mechanism to increased drought caused by climate change. [Publication: Groundwater Resources and Irrigated Agriculture – Making a Beneficial Relation More Sustainable] [GWP Perspectives Papers]