Tuesday, October 14, 2008 : 8:00 a.m.
The Development of Nonrenewable Ground Water Resources: Ethical Aspects
Groundwater use has spectacularly increased during the last five or six decades. Today, about half of mankind drinks groundwater and more than fifty percent of the economic value of irrigated agriculture is based on groundwater. Globally, the lion’s share of the blue water consumptive use corresponds to irrigation, which is about 70 percent. This proportion, in arid and semiarid regions, can be higher than 90 percent. In the last half century, groundwater use has increased from 100-150 km3 /year to 900-1000 km3 /year today. A fraction of this volume, not well-known yet, comes from non-renewable groundwater resources. In some very arid (industrialized or developing) regions this groundwater might be considered non-renewable. This intensive use has been described as a silent revolution mainly performed by millions of farmers with scarce planning and control by conventional governmental water agencies. This groundwater development has produced great socio-economic benefits, mainly in developing countries, providing drinking water and reducing hunger among the poor. But it has also produced different problems in some regions. These problems, that are still to be properly analyzed and assessed, have been frequently exaggerated because of ignorance, inertia or corruption of some high-level water decision-makers. A series of hydromyths or wrong paradigms, pervasively found in many places, are discussed in the paper. One of these hydromyths is considering that the development of non-renewable groundwater is always an unsustainable and unethical policy. This paper analyzes the factors or conditions that may determine if this development is or not an unethical activity.
Maite M. Aldaya, Complutense University of Madrid Biologist, PhD in Ecology and currently working on the Guadiana Water Footprint at the Complutense University of Madrid, framed in the NeWater european project.