The groundwater development silent revolution: pros and cons
- Resumen
- During the last half-century, agriculture in most arid and semi-arid countries has experienced a true ¿silent revolution¿ of intensive groundwater use. Millions of farmers worldwide have chosen to become increasingly dependent on the reliability of groundwater resources, and as a result their countries have reaped abundant social and economic benefits. Except in very poor regions this spectacular increase in groundwater use is driven by economic reasons: usually the cost of abstracting groundwater is only a small fraction of the guaranteed crop. In the less developed regions, groundwater probably constitutes the only viable alternative to meet the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. <br/> Data from several countries shows that groundwater irrigation presents significantly greater efficiency than surface water irrigation systems, thus contributing to fulfil the goal of ¿more crops and jobs per drop¿. Nevertheless, in the semiarid and arid industrialized regions that goal ischangingto¿morecash andnatureperdrop¿. <br/> This ¿silent revolution¿ has been carried out with scarce control on the part of government water agencies, and thus a series of unwanted effects have developed in certain places. While these by no means justify the pervasive ¿hydromyths¿ and obsolete paradigms that voice the frailty of groundwater, appropriate management of groundwater resources remains a worldwide challenge.This paperprovides anoverviewofthese issues, andconcludeswiththe needthere is to educate all levels of society on the importance of groundwater and to create bottom-up user associationsto manage aquifers as a common poolresource.
- Autor
- Llamas, Ramón
- Palabras Clave
- Aguas subterráneas, Riego, Hidrogeología, Planificación hidrológica
- Idioma
- Inglés
- Documentos
- Ponencia ( 11 pag, 218 Kb )
- Presentación
Otros Documentos relacionados:
- Documento Final Semanas Temáticas
- Conclusiones Tribuna del Agua
- Existe un Video disponible en el Centro de Documentación