Groundwater governance in the Indo-Gangetic Basin: an interplay of hydrology and socio-ecology

Groundwater irrigation has emerged as a major socio-technical reality and has added substantive economic gains in the Indo-Gangetic Basin countries. In the Indo-Gangetic Basin the hydrology and socio-ecology and the associated agriculture and human livelihoods undergo significant shifts as one traverses from the semiarid and water-scarce Indus Basin in the northwest to the sub-humid and water-sufficient eastern Gangetic Basin. However, basin-wide analysis shows that stage of development and utilization of the groundwater resource has limited relationship to the abundance of resource availability. Studies made at five sites in the basin under the CPWF Groundwater Governance in Asia (GGA) Project revealed that groundwater use produced higher benefits as compared to canal irrigation and conjunctive water use. Small and marginal farmers with scattered land holdings do not, however, have sufficient resources to install their own pump sets, and must depend upon their neighbors for purchase of groundwater. Furthermore, a mismatch between the basin hydrological conditions and the energy policies are leading to over-exploitation of the resource in the Indus Basin and constraining the optimal use of the resource in the eastern Gangetic Basin. We present policy options for improving the productivity, livelihoods, and resource sustainability for the small and marginal farmers of the basin.