Groundwater licensing and its challenges
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PAPER
Groundwater licensing and its challenges François Molle 1 & Alvar Closas 2 Received: 12 September 2019 / Accepted: 1 May 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The registering and/or licensing of groundwater abstraction is held as a “best practice” in the control of groundwater use and a necessary step toward volumetric management of resources. Yet, groundwater licensing and legalization processes in areas with many scattered (often agricultural) users tend to face severe difficulties and are rarely successful. Based on a global survey on groundwater governance, this article revisits the reasons for the users’ lack of interest, the failure of most legalization/licensing processes, and the frequent lack of both capacity and the political will of government agencies in conducting such processes. It identifies a groundwater licensing dilemma that explains why governments deploy too little effort too late, and finally proposes a few steps and principles to be considered when deciding whether licensing is achievable and how to increase the likelihood of success. Keywords Groundwater management . Over-abstraction . Socio-economic aspects . Licensing . Wells
Introduction The overexploitation of groundwater, however contested its definition (Custodio 2002; Molle et al. 2018), is recognized by a dropping water table and undesirable effects that can no longer be glossed over and have come to be considered greater than the benefits of groundwater use (Famigletti 2014; Wada et al. 2012). These effects include drying springs and desiccated wetlands, reduced river base-flow, land subsidence, dried-up wells, declining groundwater quality, and saline water intrusion (Foster and Chilton 2003; Konikow and Kendy 2005; Richey et al. 2015). Addressing excessive use readily triggers two key questions: how much is too much? and how could abstraction be reduced (Molle et al. 2018)? Discussions about what should be done generally hinge on identifying who is pumping, how much, and where. As the oft-repeated mantra goes, “you cannot manage what you do not know” (see Alley and Alley 2017; García et al. 2018; Grönwall and OduroKwarteng 2018; OECD 2015; Wijnen et al. 2012; World Bank 2010). Quantification is therefore seen as a prerequisite to informed decision-making and is defined here as the * François Molle [email protected] 1
IRD, UMR-Geau, University Montpellier, Montpellier, France
2
International Consultant, Canberra, Australia
procedures by which well characteristics (e.g. location, capacity, type of use) are known, registered, and possibly made lawful, and through which actual groundwater use is monitored, measured, or estimated. While these two elements— the identification of wells and their actual abstraction—seem to be linked and complementary, it must be noted that use can also be estimated (such as through remote sensing) without full knowledge of existing wells. Likewise, actual use cannot be easily derived from the characteristics of existing wells such as their abstraction c
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