Groundwater Use

The international journal “Paddy and Water Environment” has brought out a special issue in March 2011 (Volume 9, Number 1) on “Paddy and Water Management with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI)” which brings together the results of formal research on SRI in a number of countries (Part I) and also reports on initiatives by government agencies, NGOs, universities, or the private sector, bringing knowledge of SRI to farmers in a wide range of agroecological circumstances (Part II). It has six articles and nine technical reports from Afghanistan, China, the Gambia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mali,  Pakistan, Panama, and Thailand as well as several review articles.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI), developed in Madagascar almost 30 years ago, modifies certain practices for managing plants, soil, water, and nutrients with the effect of raising the productivity of the land, labor, and capital devoted to rice production. Certain production inputs are reduced—seeds, inorganic fertilizer, water, and fuel where water is pumped—with increased yield as a result.

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This study by Institute for Resource Management and Economic Development (IRMED) for Ministry for Water Resources (MoWR) in response to the challenge of sound governance of ground water resources underscores the need to review the legal and institutional framework for regulating ground water utilization in India.Read More

This report developed under the APWELL project deals with participatory hydrological monitoring in an effort to sensitize the individual groundwater users on judicious use of groundwater. Participatory hydrological monitoring improves the users’ understanding of local groundwater resource characteristics and helps local communities to form a community opinion to support appropriate measures for managing the available resources equitably.Read More

This presentation by ACWADAM on community organization in groundwater management deals with the processes involved in people’s mobilization and participation. The requisites of groundwater management include: resource enhancement, demand management, equitable distribution, institutional mechanism and controlling of free riding. It deals with groundwater management at a local scale when compared to aquifer management.

Aquifer management involves:Read More

• Identification of aquifer on the basis of geology;
• Identification of recharge and discharge areas;
• Assessment of aquifer capacity and yield through aquifer mapping;
• Protection of recharge area and increasing the groundwater level through artificial recharge in recharge area (based on the geology);
• Treating groundwater as a common property resource;
• Encouraging community use of groundwater and restricting individual use;
• Putting in place an institutional mechanism and legal back up for community groundwater management;
• Awareness generation regarding groundwater and science of hydrogeology.