Groundwater is a crucial source of freshwater but is under threat from overuse and pollution. While groundwater management has emerged in many countries, governance is still poor in most places. Key aspects of groundwater governance include information systems, legal frameworks, policies, and stakeholder involvement. Diagnostics found large variations in governance quality between and within countries. Improving governance requires actions like raising awareness, building capacity, improving monitoring, reforming laws and policies, and fostering cooperation among stakeholders. Overall the document discusses the importance of groundwater resources and outlines key factors and options for strengthening governance to better manage this vital resource.

1. Groundwater Governance
Jac van der Gun
Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS
Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Third UNESCO/GEF IW:LEARN Groundwater Integration Dialogue
“Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS”

2. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Groundwater:
.......... Can we take it for granted?
• A huge volume of freshwater (almost 99%
of all liquid freshwater on earth)
• Widespread, and easy to locate and exploit
• Very profitable for a wide range of uses
• Currently exploited at a global rate of
some 1000 km3/year - representing a
significant share (26%) of all freshwater
withdrawals
• Often a preferential source of water
because of its quality and reliability
• Essential for survival in dry areas
• In addition: valuable in-situ functions
related to ecosystems and the environment

3. • Intensive abstraction may lead to steady
declines of groundwater levels, eventually
resulting into exhaustion of the resource
• Climate variation and climate change may
aggravate water scarcity problems
Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
.... or should we care for control, protection and
optimal allocation/use of the resource?
• Groundwater
quality is
threatened by
seawater
intrusion and by
pollution sources
at the surface or
underground• Furthermore: are scarce groundwater resources optimally allocated?

4. • Many springs and base
flows of streams have gone
dry already due to intensive
groundwater abstraction
• Groundwater conditions
affect coastal ecosystems
Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
.... and should we also care about the external
impacts of changes in groundwater state or regime?
• Land subsidence due to
intensive groundwater
abstraction causes substantial
damage in the affected zones
• And global groundwater abstraction even contributes to sea level rise ............

5. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Emerging problems and observed threats have
triggered groundwater management
• Groundwater management has emerged in virtually all countries, but its
development is not synchronous nor identical
• Initially often dominated by hydrogeological concepts, studies, analysis and
modelling; in combination with water resources planning methodologies
• Commonly a gradual evolution from a ‘single-issue’ focus to more
comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approaches
• In spite of many successes, also many failures or even stagnation
• Technical measures (e.g. artificial recharge) usually easier to implement
than non-technical measures (relying on people’s behaviour)
• Key to successful groundwater management is good ‘groundwater
governance’

6. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
What is groundwater governance?
• Groundwater governance is the overarching framework establishing who
formulates policies /strategies and is responsible for their implementation,
and how different stakeholders interact
• Groundwater management is action-oriented and deals with what the
stakeholders do
• Key areas of concern of groundwater governance are:
 Information/knowledge
 Legal frameworks
 Policies
 Actors (their roles and how they interact)
“Groundwater governance comprises the promotion of responsible
collective action to ensure control, protection and socially-sustainable
utilisation of groundwater resources for the benefit of humankind and
dependent ecosystems.” (after Foster and Garduño, 2013, modified)

7. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Global diagnostic on groundwater governance:
General findings and comments
• Regional and Global Diagnostic reports have been compiled by the GEF
project ‘Groundwater Governance: A framework for Action’, carried out by
FAO, UNESCO, the World Bank and IAH
• The state of groundwater governance varies highly from country to country,
and within countries (depending on physical, socio-economic, political,
cultural and other factors)
• These variations partly correspond with differences in stage of development
of groundwater management:
 Pre-management stage
 Initial management stage
 Advanced management stage
• Groundwater governance is in most countries still rather poor
• ‘Perfect’ groundwater governance is utopia
• The diagnostics help identifying relevant options for improvement

8. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Elements of groundwater governance:
(1) Area-specific information/knowledge
• Such info/knowledge is indispensible for awareness on groundwater
(potential, opportunities, threats, etc) and for any action addressing it
• Considerable progress during the last few decades, but many areas still
remain ‘terra incognita’
• Groundwater monitoring to define changes in groundwater state is crucial,
but it is non-existent, fragmentary or poor in many countries
• Widening of scope: more is needed than only hydrogeological data
• In recent years spectacular improvement of groundwater information
systems around the world (IT driven)
• Tendencies towards sharing data and information, but much scope left for
improvement
• Most groundwater information is in a format digestible for ‘technical actors’
only

9. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Elements of groundwater governance:
(2) Legal frameworks
• Laws addressing groundwater exist in all countries, but large variations in
scope, degree of detail and quality
• Important issues in these laws:
 Groundwater ownership/ groundwater user rights/ allocation doctrines
 Assignment of responsibilities and mandates for groundwater management and
protection
 Prohibitions, obligations and liabilities
• Regulations are made for law enforcement
• Many countries have good and up-to-date legal frameworks on groundwater
• Interesting supra-national developments (e.g. EU WFD, Transboundary Grw.)
• Frequently observed deficiencies:
 Formal law diverging from customary law or from stakeholders’ perceptions
 Fragmented (e.g. quantity versus quality) and sometimes inconsistent legislation
 Poor implementation of the law

10. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Elements of groundwater governance:
(3) Policies
• Policies are the decisions made by stakeholders regarding what to aim for and
what to do in the context of governance, during a given period of time
• They reflect societal preferences (thus have a political dimension) and may
adopt overall leading goals such as:
 Sustainability (of water resources, natural environment, local economy, etc.)
 Water security and adequate water supply
 Socio-economic development and poverty alleviation
• Often embraced principles: IWRM, precautionary, ‘polluter-pays’ principles
• Marked differences in approach: e.g. market-forces versus strict regulation,
pro-active or reactive, supply or demand management, technical or non-
technical interventions, etc.
• Policy scope varies from narrow to very wide (incorporating interdependencies
such as with surface water, land use, subsurface activities, etc.). Wide scope is
attractive, but should not make policy implementation infeasible (keep the
local development/management stage in mind)

11. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Elements of groundwater governance:
(4) Actors
• Large diversity of actors or potential actors: politicians, government agencies;
public or private water utilities; groundwater users; water user associations; NGOs;
industry, mining & other private sectors; academia, R&D, consultants; schools and
mass media; general public; etc.
• Leadership formally with mandated government agencies, but often very
weak, due to various factors:
 Limited awareness on groundwater issues and low political commitment
 Poor institutional mandates and insufficient professional staffing and budgets
 Inexperienced in cooperating with other government agencies, even less with
non-governmental partners (public-private partnerships, local stakeholders)
• Effective involvement of stakeholders is generally rare and hampered by:
 Limited awareness on groundwater and low commitment to its governance
 Conflicts of interest, lack of trust and/or non-acceptance of government’s goals
 Incapability to make their voices heard and to become effectively involved
• How to develop feasible and effective cooperation mechanisms?

12. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Improving groundwater governance:
clusters of actions that deserve to be considered
Get and keep
relevant
stakeholders
on board
Empower all
groundwater
governance
actors
Be well-
informed on
the local
situation
Improve
methodologies
and
instruments
Establish
approaches
for effective
multi-actor
cooperation

13. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Cluster 1: options for action
Get and keep
relevant
stakeholders
on board
• Raise awareness by
dedicated campaigns
• Pursue more political
commitment and
financial support
• Motivate and prepare
local stakeholders for
active and effective
participation
• Introduce and benefit
from effective
communication
strategies
• Tailor groundwater
information to the
needs of the different
categories of actors
• TV, radio, brochures, special
meetings, social media, etc.
• Lobbies at the level of
politicians other influential
persons
• Pilot projects; demonstration
projects; training projects for
local stakeholders; developing
public-private partnerships
• Newsletters, discussion
platforms, info & contact
centres, portals, public
hearings, etc.
• Books, reports, brochures,
maps, dvds, portals, on-line
databases and info systems,
etc.
What: How:

14. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Cluster 2: options for action
• Pursue more political
commitment and
financial support
• Improve operational
conditions for public
groundwater agencies
• Build capacity on
groundwater and its
management
• Conduct courses in
groundwater policy
development & planning
• Organise stakeholder
groups
• Lobbies at the level of
politicians other influential
persons
• Institutional reforms, clear tasks
& mandates, adequate staffing
and budgets
• Educate staff of government
agencies; representatives of key
stakeholder categories
• To be included in academic
curricula; but in addition, ‘stand-
alone’ short courses
• E.g. in groundwater user
associations
Empower all
groundwater
governance
actors
What: How:

15. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Cluster 3: options for action
Be well-
informed on
the local
situation
• Groundwater resources
exploration/assessment
programmes
• Groundwater
monitoring programmes
(grw levels, abstraction/
discharge, quality)
• Promote data and
information to be
widely shared and
disseminated
• Disseminate relevant
groundwater
information and
knowledge
• In particular in countries or
regions with insufficiently
explored aquifers
• Make significant funds and
human capacity available to
ensure that essential variables
are monitored
• Change mind-sets towards
cooperation; assist in the
development of information
systems and web portals
• Dedicated publications,
brochures, newsletters,
websites, etc., tailor-made for
different stakeholder groups
What: How:

16. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Cluster 4: options for action
Improve
methodologies
and
instruments
• Advanced methodo-
logies for developing
policy and planning
• Widen policy scope and
improve coordination
between policy fields
• Legal reforms
• Modify/ replace
unfeasible groundwater
management
instruments
• Develop and implement
new instruments and
approaches
• Among others: participatory
approaches, IWRM and
systematic planning cycles
• ‘New’ connections, such as
land use, use of subsurface
space, mining, environment.
• For updating, integrating,
improving coherence, deleting
non-functional law, etc.
• Preceded by identification of
malfunctioning and its main
causes, and analysis of
potential alternatives
• Among others: for TBAs, but
also innovative approaches
for maintaining a good state
of the groundwater resources
What: How:

17. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Cluster 5: options for actionEstablish
approaches
for effective
multi-actor
cooperation
• Forge coordination and
partnerships among
government agencies
• Dialogues to build trust
and commitment
between public sector
and other stakeholders
• Develop public-private
partnerships for mutual
benefit
• Define and agree upon
feasible roles of non-
governmental actors
• Develop and implement
‘rules of the game’ in
operational groundwater
resources management
• Agreements on mandates,
abandonment of rivalries and
initiatives for cooperation
• Awareness programmes on
groundwater, structural
communication and special
meetings
• Water supply companies,
water using industries, mining
and oil& gas sector, etc.
• Highly context-dependent
(may range from passive role
to local self-management)
• Smart approaches to effective
cooperation in practice,
including mechanisms for
conflict resolution
What: How:

18. Managing Groundwater in Coastal Areas and SIDS, Athens, 6-7 May 2014
Thank you
GEF project ‘Groundwater Governance: A framework for Action’, carried out by FAO,
UNESCO, the World Bank and IAH: http://www.groundwatergovernance.org/