Research to support sustainable groundwater development and governance in Laos

Lao PDR (Laos) is a landlocked country of around seven million people situated in the heart of the Mekong region (Fig. 1). Listed amongst the 47 UN-designated Least Developed Countries, its level of socioeconomic development is comparable to that of neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia but significantly lower than China, Thailand and Vietnam. Subsistence farming is the primary means of food security and income for nearly 80% of all households. Poorly developed, water-rich countries such as Laos have historically paid most attention to surface water resources, with limited consideration to groundwater. The attention to groundwater in Laos received a much-needed boost through a four year research project (2012-2016) funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). The project, ‘Enhancing the Resilience and Productivity of Rainfed Dominated Systems in Lao PDR through Sustainable Groundwater Use’, was the first multi-disciplinary research effort focused on groundwater issues in the country. With the project completed (ACIAR 2016), this article examines its contributions in the areas of science, policy and capacity development and highlights the main lessons learnt during its implementation. These learnings may resonate with those actors already involved in, or considering involvement in applied groundwater research under similar conditions

Groundwater research and management: integrating science into management decisions. Proceedings of IWMI-ITP-NIH International Workshop on "Creating Synergy Between Groundwater Research and Management in South and Southeast Asia," Roorkee, India, 8-9 February 2005

Groundwater management / Governance / Groundwater development / Artificial recharge / Water quality / Aquifers / Groundwater irrigation / Water balance / Simulation models / Watershed management / Water harvesting / Decision making / South East Asia / Bangladesh / China / India / Nepal / Pakistan / Syria

Tsunamiens spor i grundvandet - erfaringer fra undersøgelser i Sri Lanka

Tsunamien, som opstod efter det kæmpemæssige underjordiske jordskælv tæt ved Sumatra i det Indiske Ocean d. 24. december, 2004, forårsagede pludselig og vidtomfavnende død og ødelæggelser i sit umiddelbare kølvand i de omkringliggende lande. Men efter bølgerne havde trukket sigtilbage, stod det klart, at noget andet var stærkt medtaget af tunamien, som indirekte ville påvirke den lokale befolkning i lang tid efter, nemlig grundvandet og vandforsyningen

Groundwater Quality Impacts Due to Population Growth and Land Use Exploitation in the Coastal Aquifers of Sri Lanka

Previous studies have tried to investigate the impact of agriculture on groundwater quality of coastal aquifers but not tried to assess the overall water quality impacts considering sea water intrusion effects, vulnerability, and public health impacts. This study is focused on studying vulnerability of coastal aquifers producing groundwater quality concerns in the presence of sea water intrusion, population growth, and agriculture dominated land use activities

The international training and research program on groundwater governance in Asia: Theory and practice

CGIAR-CPWF Project “International Training and Research Program on Groundwater Governance in Asia: Theory and Practice” was designed and implemented by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to address the deficiencies in human capacity of managing groundwater in the two large basins of the world- the Indus-Gangetic basin and the Yellow River basin. The basic premise of the project was that proper groundwater management needs to be built on informed knowledge of professionals from the region, with emphasis on inter-disciplinary knowledge and understanding of the actual groundwater situation in the rural areas. This objective was achieved through development of an international courseware on the subject and actual enhancement of the capacity of existing institutions and about 80 professionals working at junior and senior levels and engaged in media dissemination in the basin states involved in groundwater research and management so that they could undertake more integrated, multi-disciplinary and sustainable approaches to groundwater governance

Groundwater: critical for sustainable development.

Groundwater represents close to 99% of all unfrozen fresh water in the world. Groundwater makes up one third of all water being used, provides almost half of the world’s population with domestic water1, and is the source of almost half of the water used for irrigation worldwide

Background information and methodology to support estimation of sustainable groundwater abstraction using GEFIS

When assessing environmental flow requirements (EFR) of rivers, and adapting appropriate management strategies to comply with EFR, it is critical to understand the changes that may impact river flows. These could be river abstractions and discharges, land use changes, river diversion and impoundment, as well as groundwater abstraction in the catchment or river basin. The link between groundwater and surface water flow can be significant, implying that if groundwater is pumped near a river, it may significantly influence and reduce river flow (Barlow and Leake, 2012) (Figure A1). This is because in many, especially perennial rivers, groundwater provides part of the flow in the river, a flow component called base flow (BF) (Figure A1). By implication, management of rivers and EFR is closely linked to groundwater management, and to ensure sustainable outcomes, in most cases, management of both water resources are required. This is referred to as conjunctive water management (Barlow and Leake, 2012)