grundvatten i ett globalt perspektiv anders berntell
TRANSCRIPT
Why is groundwater neglected in water
management discussions?
Anders Berntell
Executive Director
Stockholm International Water Institute
Is it neglected?
• Google hits:
– River management 122 000 000
– Lake management 74 000 000
– Water management 47 500 000
– Freshwater management 6 700 000
– Surfacewater management 2 580 000
– Groundwater management: 576 000
Precious resource
• Distributed
• Clean – compared to surface waters in most places
• Relatively inexpensive to abstract
• Relatively stable supply over time
• Inexpensive storing
• Supplies surface water
• Water for the poor, in many developing countries
Agriculture
Number of
wells
Agricultural
production
Green revolution in India
According to the International Groundwater
Resources Assessment Centre
http://www.igrac.nl/:
Overexploitation
India, traditional view
Grace Tellus, satellite mapping
An example
• EU Framework Directive on Water, 2000
Surface water quality objectives
• Detailed annexes, chemistry and biology
Groundwater quality objectives
• “to reverse any significant and sustained upward trend
in the concentration of any pollutant……….”
Member states could not agree on detailed quality objectives, they could only agree to start developing them
• New Groundwater Directive, 2006
– Quality standards
– Methodology for setting national standards
European Environment Agency
• 136 maps on surface-water
• 7 maps on groundwater
Surface water monitoring stations
Groundwater bodies - Aquifer type
Nitrate in surface water
Nitrate in groundwater
Salt water intrusion, due to overexploitation
Danger to groundwater from pesticides
First classification of status, Framework Directive on Water
Darker blue =
higher risk of not
reaching “good
status”
Getting better……
Insufficient knowledge – Why?
• Monitoring expensive
• Mapping expensive
• Characterisation expensive
• Modelling complicated and expensive
Few good examples (i.e. Rhine, Danube……)
But more important: “Tragedy of the commons”
• Private use – Common good
• Diffuse pollution – Common good
Countries where monitoring data is available
• International collaboration often required
– Many examples in developing countries are results of international projects
The tragedy of the commons
• Land – Land rights defined – Defined boundaries – Has a price – Visible
• Groundwater – Public good – Water rights unclear – Is free – Flowing – Invisible/Unknown – Delayed response
Legal regimes
• UN Watercourses Convention, 1997 – No Groundwater
• UN-Interational Law Commission
– Committee on Groundwater
• UN-ECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, 1992
• SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems, 2001