Book review: Reddy,Groundwater Governance: Development,Degradation and Management

Groundwater is a mainstay of rural economy, supporting agricultural growth and rural development and providing water and food security to hundreds and millions of people in India. While this being the case, for last nearly three decades many challenges pertaining to the governance and management of this resource have surfaced. The book Groundwater Governance: Development, Degradation and Management discusses these governance and management challenges and approaches to limit groundwater degradation with a specific case study on the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh (now bifurcated into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 has three chapters which together provide the overall scenario of the groundwater development, degradation and management in India with special focus on undivided Andhra Pradesh. Part II has four chapters which review regulatory, economic and participatory approaches to groundwater management and examines in detail the participatory models of groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh for its effectiveness.

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the book and sets the broader context. Chapter 2 provides an overview on groundwater situation in India with special focus on the state of Andhra Pradesh. Using the spatio-temporal analysis of groundwater development in the state, authors have discussed the inherent weaknesses in the groundwater estimation methodologies for hard rock areas and limited use of such assessments for the farming community (micro-scale). They have highlighted that although the stage of groundwater development is only 46 per cent (2011), well failures and farm distress are a reality in many parts of Rayalaseema and Telangana regions. The authors have also criticized the free farm power and supply regulation (restriction on number of power supply hours) policy of the state which have helped neither in expanding area under well irrigation nor in reducing the economic burden of farmers especially those having small and marginal landholdings.

Chapter 3 provides a conceptual framework for understanding factors influencing groundwater development at the district level. Authors hypothesised that natural (rainfall, irrigation, etc.), economic (per capita income, number of irrigation wells, etc.), social (Human Development Index, literacy rate, etc.) and development factors, all influence differential groundwater use across districts. However, the multiple regression analysis performed by considering all these as independent factors did not provide much lead in understanding the dynamics of groundwater development behaviour at the district level and thus is not much of help for groundwater managers.

Chapter 4 reviews various approaches for groundwater management in India and elsewhere. Three different basic management practices, that is, regulatory approaches (restriction on digging new wells, ceiling of well depth, etc.), economic approaches (water pricing, tradable water rights, etc.) and community-based approaches have been discussed. The authors have argued that the regulatory and economic approaches are difficult to implement in India because of large number of scattered groundwater structures and also because they often fail to capture the local specific conditions such as geohydrology and socio-economic aspects of groundwater use. However, the authors did not examine the transaction cost of implementing these economic and market instruments against the potential benefits that could be accrued from the same. However, they did find merit in upscaling community-based groundwater management which is presently confined to small geographical areas.

Chapter 5 further explored the community-based groundwater management approach by discussing three pilot experiments in undivided Andhra Pradesh. They include Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater System (APFMS), Social Regulation for Groundwater Management (SRGM) and Collectivisation of Bore wells under Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiatives (APDAI). Focus was on assessing the institutional structure, operational principles, functioning and their effectiveness. Chapter 6 provides some more evidences towards implementation and status of these three participatory groundwater management approaches using empirical data from three villages.

Chapter 7 provides a comparative account of the three community-based groundwater management models. For the purpose, these models were categorized into two groups: knowledge intensive (APFAMGS) and social regulation (SRWM and APDAI). The authors inferred that the social regulation approach works better than the knowledge intensive ones as the latter does not address equity in relation to access to groundwater. Further, they argued that all the three approaches had potential to promote sustainable groundwater management. However, in the absence of proper hand holding support (once the implementing agencies exist from the programme), sustainability of these initiatives itself is a major concern. Therefore, authors suggest creating and enabling policy for environment in order to promote these initiatives at a larger scale. Some of the suggested options include delinking land rights from water rights, moving towards community-based property rights in groundwater, creating hydrological information at the smaller scale (village or aquifer), incentives to conserve and manage groundwater, realistic energy pricing, and strengthening existing groundwater regulations.

Overall, the book presents a comprehensive account of groundwater situation and community-based management approaches in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Authors have rightly discussed various approaches on groundwater management and covered most of the peer-reviewed research studies from India to reflect on the current thinking on this theme. They have inferred that direct institutional intervention in the form of water rights and indirect economic instruments such as pro rata electricity pricing are apt for addressing groundwater overexploitation problems in Andhra Pradesh. Already, metering and pro rata pricing of electricity are in different stages of implementation in some states which include Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Punjab. Andhra Pradesh can surely learn from the experiences of these states.

However, authors show too much concern about the idea of installing meters necessary for measuring electricity use by groundwater pumps, citing the ‘huge transaction cost’ involved. But a little more research would have revealed that with the advent of prepaid electronic meters which work through scratch cards and work on internet and mobile technology and remotely sensed meters, both transaction cost of metering and administrative cost of meter reading can be lowered.

Authors have discussed the private property nature of groundwater resource (that it is attached to land rights under the Indian Easements Act, 1882) as an impediment to enforcing new water rights. Hence, it would have been helpful if authors also included some international experiences on working of groundwater rights and entitlements especially on efforts made in Murray-Darling Basin, Australia and California, United States of America. Nevertheless, the issues and challenges has been clearly identified by the authors.

In the context of community-based approach to resource management, authors have rightly identified a risk associated with the sustainability of such initiatives on withdrawal of technical and financial supports. This finding is in line with the experiences of farmer management of surface irrigation systems wherein such initiatives have worked when the institutional organizers (like NGOs in Gujarat) or irrigation department (as in Maharashtra) provides technical, administrative and financial support to the local community and a strong leadership is available at the local level.

In a nutshell, the authors have made a diligent attempt in unfolding groundwater situation in the undivided Andhra Pradesh and the challenges of managing it. The book will be useful for the policy makers, international donor agencies, state groundwater departments, researchers and trainers. It will also be a very good reference material for students pursuing hydrological, environmental and developmental studies.