In India, the allocation of ownership and use rights on groundwater are least understood. In some places, groundwater is linked to land ownership while in others it is viewed as a ‘common property’. The term 'common property' refers to the status of groundwater as a resource to which all overlying landowners generally have access. The term is not intended to reflect the legal status of groundwater as a 'public', 'common' or 'private' resource. For all practical purposes, groundwater is open access resource until it is abstracted; and it is considered as privatized as soon as it is abstracted by whoever withdraws it first. What should be the structure of rights to be created on groundwater which would be consistent with the efficiency and equity goals? Can a specific group of farmers of a village prevent others from pumping water from the aquifer under the village land? No, they cannot; this implies that there are no common property rights to groundwater. Can the government prevent farmers from pumping groundwater under their fields? No: this means there are no public rights to groundwater. On the other hand, a land owner has a right to sink a bore-hole or a well on his land to intercept water percolating underground through his land, and prevent it from going to other man’s property. This implies that groundwater rights are associated with land title and, therefore, groundwater is treated as private property. Who owns groundwater when it is harnessed and augmented through percolation tank, check dams or even seepage from canals? Because these structures are built with public money, there groundwater recharge cannot be treated as natural percolation and as private property. WHAT IS REQUIRED NOW? Groundwater demands on land and the consequences of these demands have to be characterized by examining people's adaptive strategies, and the policy implications, treating social and practical decisions ethically.
Published by Prof. Partha Sarathi Datta, Independent Consultant on Water & Environment
In India, the allocation of ownership and use rights on groundwater are least understood. In some places, groundwater is linked to land ownership while in others it is viewed as a ‘common property’. The term 'common property' refers to the status of groundwater as a resource to which all overlying landowners generally have access. The term is not intended to reflect the legal status of groundwater as a 'public', 'common' or 'private' resource.
For all practical purposes, groundwater is open access resource until it is abstracted; and it is considered as privatized as soon as it is abstracted by whoever withdraws it first. What should be the structure of rights to be created on groundwater which would be consistent with the efficiency and equity goals?
Can a specific group of farmers of a village prevent others from pumping water from the aquifer under the village land? No, they cannot; this implies that there are no common property rights to groundwater. Can the government prevent farmers from pumping groundwater under their fields? No: this means there are no public rights to groundwater.
On the other hand, a land owner has a right to sink a bore-hole or a well on his land to intercept water percolating underground through his land, and prevent it from going to other man’s property. This implies that groundwater rights are associated with land title and, therefore, groundwater is treated as private property.
Who owns groundwater when it is harnessed and augmented through percolation tank, check dams or even seepage from canals? Because these structures are built with public money, there groundwater recharge cannot be treated as natural percolation and as private property.
WHAT IS REQUIRED NOW? Groundwater demands on land and the consequences of these demands have to be characterized by examining people's adaptive strategies, and the policy implications, treating social and practical decisions ethically.
2 Comments
Better Groundwater Governance Only Can Ensure Sustained Water Supply
I have pleasure to inform all that I have authored a book entitled "Better Groundwater Governance Only Can Ensure Sustained Water Supply", published by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany. (ISBN: 978-3-330-32219-6). The book has been released at the price of 49.90 € Euro on permanent links on morebooks.de, amazon.com,
For water security point of view, I request all to give wide publicity about this book, because, I think public (including all stakeholders) by an large has taken water for granted. The book will be also very useful for students and researchers.
Blurb: All countries are confronted with water scarcity of varying types. The daunting biggest challenge for the authorities is in protecting groundwater from depletion and pollution, and making sound managing decisions on complex issues/activities that may affect water supply at local and basin scale. For short-term situation management when water supplies are affected, the managers usually adopt approaches, which involve eliminating immediate, unacceptable impacts on human and the environment, groundwater-use restrictions, regulation, balancing time and resources. However, these may require more research, time, regulations, funding, technology, etc., and be expensive/complex. This book identifies the issues that affect water supply; and makes scientific endeavors to improve all stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of real groundwater problems, and suggests governance approaches by relevant policies, with strong peoples’ participation efforts by behavioral change. The analysis may be especially useful to professionals in water governance and communications for long-term solutions to ensure sustained water supply, reducing costs and implementing water resources protection strategies, for public benefit.
Published by Prof. Partha Sarathi Datta, Independent Consultant on Water & Environment
Very pertinent point, Sir, in several states of US, harnessing rainwater has been banned just because that rainwater is needed to be infiltrated into everybody's land so that it can emerge in some water body or other by natural distribution. While we are fighting for the right to the scarce quantum of ground water and the scant little in our river systems, it is ironical that rainwater harvesting is still being relegated as one of the obligations the property developer must address, nothing more. Creation of underground buffers at shallow depths for reuse later, can provide an answer to the undue stress we are creating on our water bodies. Communities can hold rainwater under sand bed filters in much cleaner state using Geocellular blocks lined with HDPE to make such tanks with humongous capacity. Shallow storage under engineered soil beds shall allow the rainwater to stay sterile, devoid of the contaminants like Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromates etc that have actually made most of our ground water in the water stressed areas unfit for human consumption. Unlike surface storage in ponds, rainwater harvested in such underground private aquifers shall also stay protected from evaporation losses, dust contamination and algae/ invasive plant infestation.
Published by Pawan Kakkar, CEO at Jugapro