Non-renewable groundwater resources: a ... - unesdoc - Unesco

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Chapter 2Social and economic dimensionsof non-renewable resourcesMohammed Al-Eryani, Bo Appelgren and Stephen FosterConcept of socio-economic sustainabilityThere is no rigorous definition of social sustainability, although Turton and Ohlsson (1999) havedefined the related concept of ‘social adaptive capacity to water scarcity’. Social sustainabilitycontemplates consideration of society needs and goals, which will vary with time, place andpeople. The changing nature of social sustainability and inter-related risk of resource degradationare the critical considerations when developing plans for the use of non-renewablegroundwater resources. They imply periodic review and adjustment of plans, in response tochanging circumstances and increasing knowledge.The principles of the Brundtland Commission are :social sustainability refers to the maintenance of well-being of the people most dependent on a resource,through regulating actions that affect the sustainability of the resource while maintaining an equitableinter-generational distribution of benefitsand a socially-sustainable plan for use of a non-renewable resource would thus need to beformulated to meet three main conditions (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1997):● maintaining (or improving) well being of communities involved, by meeting as far aspossible their social, economic, cultural and environmental needs, now and in the future,● managing the actions of concerned individuals or communities that affect resource use, bystrengthening their capacity to cooperate in the management of the resource and assuringappropriate financial, legal, technical, institutional and political conditions for them toadhere to the established management plan,● address the fundamental concern about human survival not only for present and futuregenerations, by maintaining inter-generational equity in terms of benefits derived from theresource and ensure economic and social opportunities to all stakeholder groups includingfuture generations.Socially-sustainable use of non-renewable resourcesThe use of the term ‘sustainability’ in the context of ‘mining aquifer storage’ requires some clarification.It is interpreted here in the ‘social context’ – and thus sustainability is not meant toimply ‘preserving’ the groundwater resource for generations to come, but instead reconciling the25
NON-RENEWABLE GROUNDWATER RESOURCESuse of the non-renewable resource with the ‘sustainability of human life’. A good starting pointis to set an appropriate planning horizon of a substantial number of years (at least 20 and preferably50–100 years) for the use of the non-renewable groundwater resource, and at the sametime pay full consideration to the questions of ‘external impacts’ and ‘what comes after’,and thus to time horizons of 100–500 years and to climate change implications. In reality theuse of non-renewable resources can arise as a result of both planned and unplanned scenarios(Foster and Kemper, 2002–04), which will require a somewhat different management approach.For groundwater resource management, the typical situation is that :● diagnostic data are limited,● use patterns involve a substantial number of individual abstractors,● impacts are not very visible and often delayed,● damage to the resource base can have far-reaching and long-term consequences.In such situations an adaptive approach to management has to be adopted, recognising the risksand uncertainties at the outset to reduce subsequent conflicts (WWAP, 2003).Planned depletion scenario26In the ‘planned depletion scenario’ the socially-sustainable criterion requires orderly utilisationof aquifer reserves (of a system with little pre-existing development), minimising quality deteriorationand maximising groundwater productivity, with expected benefits and predictedimpacts over a specified time-frame. The overall goal should be to use groundwater in a mannerthat maximises long-term economic and social development of the community and decreases,over time, the frequency and severity of threats to society, leaving people better preparedto cope with socio-economic stresses associated with increasing water scarcity as aquifer storageis depleted. This will often entail the initiation and expansion of high added-value economicactivities that are not water intensive.An appropriate ‘exit strategy’ needs to be identified, developed and implemented by thetime the aquifer is substantially depleted, and this would normally imply that society will haveused the mined groundwater to advance economically, socially and technically so as to enablefuture generations to develop substitute water sources at tolerable capital and operational cost.But it could equally mean strengthening the capacity of existing water-users to cooperate inmanaging water resources more efficiently.A key challenge in the planning process is to determine the quantity of groundwaterthat can be pumped over the planning period to best serve the communities involved. Such ananalysis involves assessment of three key components :● The economics of groundwater mining and the progressive increase in water productioncosts under different exploitation options – which will have implications for the economicfeasibility of the proposed uses.● The long-term effects of the proposed exploitation of aquifer reserves on all traditionalgroundwater users, so that some form of compensation can be provided for predicted oractual derogation. Where the protection of indigenous people is an issue, it should beensured that a sufficient reserve of extractable, adequate quality, groundwater is left inthe aquifer system at the end of the proposed period of intensive exploitation to sustain thepre-existing activity (albeit at additional cost). Another way of achieving this end wouldbe to restrict the ‘design average drawdown’ of intensive exploitation to less than a givenaverage figure over a stated period (for example, 20 m after 20 years or 50 m after 30 years).
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