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WATER COOPERATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND POVERTY ERADICATIONThe five fundamental elements of the proposed blueprint forsustainable groundwater management in Balochistan, PakistanInstitutionalreform & improvedgovernanceSupply sidegroundwatermanagementExternalenvironmentDemand sidegroundwatermanagementEffectivecoordination& cooperationCommunityacceptance& adoptionPolitical stability& political willing to the governance and sustainable management of groundwateris largely inadequate. In addition, a key challenge for integratedgroundwater planning is sectoral division, with the traditionallyvertical, compartmentalized structures of government tending tolimit information flows among agencies, thereby impeding coordinatedaction. Integrated water resource management (IWRM)also needs to be conducted at a range of spatial scales. Withoutcoordination and collaboration, there is a real danger of losingeffectiveness and efficiency. 12Blueprint for sustainable groundwater managementThe proposed blueprint for groundwater management is based onfive fundamental elements:• improved governance and effectiveness of institutions• demand-side groundwater management• supply-side groundwater management options• social adoption by the community• effective coordination and cooperation.Improved governance and effectiveness of institutions includesincreased focus on strengthening and enforcing groundwater laws,including establishing clear and tradable property rights for water;better quantification of groundwater yield followed by appropriategroundwater licensing and enforcement to prevent over-extraction ofgroundwater; establishing appropriate systems for resource monitoringon a regular basis at the basin and sub-basin levels; and rigorous collaborationbetween various departments (such as the Irrigation Department,the Agricultural Department, the Balochistan Development Authority,the Public Health Engineering Department and the Water and PowerDevelopment Authority) to improve decision-making.Demand-side groundwater management should include a rationalpricing system for efficient water use; replacement of water demandingcrops with water-use efficient crops; and the adoption of modernwater-saving irrigation technologies and practice.Supply-side groundwater management options should includerainwater harvesting and surface-water use for increasing groundwaterrecharge; promoting conjunctive water use wherepossible; and groundwater markets with suitable institutionalmechanisms to augment water supply.Social adoption by the community includes providinga sense of ownership of the regional groundwaterresources and developing basin-wide groundwater users’associations with responsibilities to conserve, protect,develop and manage groundwater resources to increasecommunity welfare. It entails the strengthening ofcoordination among various stakeholders (includinggovernment departments), developing a communityvision of groundwater management through betterinformation, knowledge-sharing and communicationsfor social adoption and efficient water use. Social normsand rules must be developed (some already exist) toprevent any illegal water extraction for agriculture andother purposes.Development of sustainable groundwater plans willrequire the cooperation and coordination of a numberof government agencies and key stakeholder groups.The blueprint for sustainable groundwater managementwould require the community to provide significantinput into the management planning process, particularlyadvising on appropriate uses and values of the localgroundwater systems. In order to enhance cooperationand coordination, as suggested by Pahl-Wostl andKranz, 13 some degree of decentralization combined witheffective vertical integration of different levels of government(provincial and local) that share responsibility for aresource, and horizontal integration within governmentlevels, would be required.Social adoption and changing groundwater cultures offerconsiderable potential to internalize externalities (factorswhich received inadequate attention in previous IWRMplans) and are key elements of this blueprint for sustainablegroundwater management in Balochistan. However,it is worth noting that without firm political commitmentand effective coordination of different elements ofthe blueprint, it would be extremely difficult to achievesustainable management of groundwater resources.Moving from development to managementGroundwater is the subject of growing socialconcern around the globe, and this is especially soin Pakistan. While they are successful in enhancingagricultural production, groundwater policies inPakistan and, most particularly, in the province ofBalochistan are not well designed to handle groundwatersustainability issues. They are based on alack of geophysical knowledge and are also poorlyimplemented due to poor governance, inadequateinstitutional arrangements and lack of politicaldetermination. With groundwater systems seriouslydegrading in the region, there is a critical need fora shift from groundwater development policies togroundwater management policies accompanied bysound hydrological planning. The five fundamentalcomponents proposed above should be part of anyIWRM approach proposed and developed in Pakistan.[ 224 ]