Institutional development for sustainable groundwater management – an Arabian perspective
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Published:January 01, 2002
Abstract
In the Arabian Peninsula, hydrogeological and engineering solutions have failed to solve the severe and worsening problem of unsustainable groundwater abstraction, which threatens rural environments and livelihoods. Conventional western fiscal and regulatory measures to reduce abstractions seem to be impracticable in the present institutional and social contexts. In the region, groundwater rights without volume limitations are distributed mostly among numerous private well owners, and individual interests predominate over a communal imperative for aquifer sustainability. The solution may lie more in modifying the institutional context than in attempting to introduce official controls. This would involve the decentralization of water resources...
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Contents
Sustainable Groundwater Development

Sustainable development of groundwater resources is a key environmental and social issue for the future. To manage groundwater resources efficiently it is necessary to include protection of springs, river flows and water levels dependent on groundwater discharges, while concurrently maintaining abstractions for water supply and economic benefit. Obtaining this balance between human and environmental needs, and protecting valuable groundwater resources from over-exploitation and pollution, presents a challenge to hydrogeologists that is reflected in the approaches and case studies contained in this volume.
This volume should be of interest to researchers, regulators and practitioners in hydrogeology as well as postgraduate students following courses in hydrogeology, water resources engineering and environmental management.