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- Convenors:
-
Shailaja Fennell
(University of Cambridge)
Adam Green (University of Cambridge)
Cameron Petrie (University of Cambridge)
Rekha Bhangaonkar (University of Cambridge)
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- Formats:
- Papers
- Stream:
- Global environmental justice
- Sessions:
- Thursday 1 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel addresses inequalities in accessing both surface and ground water, the conflicts between water use for agriculture and human consumption, as well as the knock-on effects of growing water scarcity for the increasing demand for energy to access ground water.
Long Abstract:
This panel seeks to reshape the narratives on water availability in a planetary context where in many areas of the Global South, groundwater sources are under severe stress, creating a range of inequalities for many vulnerable rural communities. The rise of industrial agriculture over the second half of the twentieth century has resulted in a shift away from surface. water to groundwater, pumped to the surface from wells and the use of a significant amount of energy. An adverse consequence has been the generation of a range of environmental crises: from the outright depletion of groundwater tables, the increase in soil salinity, rising levels of heavy metals in water supplies - all evidence of a collapsing water system.
The panel will bring together researchers from the social sciences and the humanities working on innovative approaches to surface and groundwater management. We encourage papers that address the key problems of the crisis in surface and ground water such as: new imaginings of the value of surface water that can contribute to new forms of sustainable agriculture; the innovative design of surface water management practices that can be of use to modern communities; the perceptions and strategies of smallholders in securing a source of irrigation; the possibility bringing traditional knowledge into processes of irrigation management; and the application of new technologies to improve community conservation of a water system.
We welcome papers across all these areas, and encourage presentations that draws on methodologies from the social sciences and humanities
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 1 July, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Millions of smallholder farmers in rainfed India have transformed their livelihoods with the adoption of groundwater irrigation since the 1990s, accelerated by conditions of economic liberalisation. This paper examines the political economy of how this occurred and its long term consequences.
Paper long abstract:
From the 1970s onwards, groundwater irrigation in India has fundamentally reconfigured the socio-ecological fabric of the country. In creating more absolute irrigated area in five decades than incumbent technologies managed in 150 years, proponents have referred to it as a “groundwater revolution”. In this paper, I conducted 84 interviews and 151 household surveys at the village level in south Indian state of Telangana, to examine how groundwater irrigation has changed the political economy of agricultural livelihoods. In particular, I examine the role of private sector intermediaries in local irrigation firms and the market driven process of groundwater intensification in India and Telangana in the liberalisation era since the 1990s. Distinct from the original Green Revolution in the 1960s in India, the transformation of millions of subsistence smallholder farmers in rainfed and semi-arid areas like Telangana through markets and liberalisation formed a new epoch in Indian agriculture I refer to as the “Late Green Revolution” (LGR). This paper lays bare the consequences of technological fixes to the lives of the millions of smallholder farmers in an already environmentally unsuitable and hostile agricultural landscape such as Telangana. This paper finds that groundwater irrigation was widely adopted by the poorest farmers but with disastrous outcomes: competitive zero-sum drilling and rise in well densities, well failure rates of 89% and depletion of aquifers, chronic indebtedness and the eventual abandonment of the technology. This paper shows that groundwater irrigation has propelled farmers deeper into agrarian crisis, revealing the “groundwater revolution” as a mirage.
Paper short abstract:
With the purpose of assessing how small-scale agricultural water users perceive benefit-sharing mechanisms and learn how to effectively cooperate, so that all users benefit without anyone being disadvantaged, an experimental game (the ‘Basin game’) was developed and tested in Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Paper long abstract:
Common-use resources such as water bodies provide essential ecosystem services for farming communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, their security is often threatened due to their non-exclusion and rivalry features. An experimental game was developed to simulate farming choices and consequences for shared water resources. This methodology served to test if individuals, when having free access to the resource, make decisions foreseen by Nash equilibrium for non-cooperative games, and if specific management strategies can influence decisions to reach socially optimum outcomes. Throughout the game, implemented in four communities in Ghana and Burkina Faso, the players gained a good understanding of the system dynamics within a particular basin and were able to profess solutions to such dynamics. Players realised that their income depends not only on their own decisions but on those of others; this realisation came earlier in the game when a properly drafted external regulation was introduced to promote cooperation. Local water users understood that they have the key to managing water rather than relying on external agents for solutions, showing the Basin game could be used as a tool to promote community water registers and rules to govern water use. Because water security around small dams is affected by many factors, games alone will not end water shortages or pollution, but can contribute to understand the role of agricultural choices and collective action and motivate behaviour change towards more sustainable water management.
Paper short abstract:
Value of water is closely linked to its status as a collective resource. Its management is vital for sustainable agriculture. This paper explores linkages between ponds and collective management of water at different scales, and their transformation into assets that can be depleted or sustained.
Paper long abstract:
The way in which water is valued is closely linked to its status as a collective resource, and water management is one of the core issues facing sustainable agriculture. Over its deep history and across its varied geography, South Asia has been home to many varied water management strategies. Small sources of surface water–ponds–appear to have particular potential, both as a legacy water source and as a form of surface water management that can be established on the landscape. In contrast, the more recent water structures, such as farm ponds are filled with rainfall run-off and groundwater, and are privately owned, plastic-lined storage mechanism. They are emerging as essential infrastructure supporting agricultural livelihoods and mitigating climate risk, such as high variation in rainfall received, dry spells, drought and increasing temperature. As groundwater crises emerge in different parts of the country, it has become imperative to explore new ways of valuing and utilizing water. Water sources are accessed and valued differently at different social scales. New understandings of this potential are emerging from regional datasets throughout India. In this paper, we will explore the linkages between ponds and collective management of water at different scales, and their transformation into assets that can be depleted or sustained. Drawing on social research data, archaeological analysis, and historical cartography, we will compare and contrast different forms of surface water management in India, focusing in particular on ponds in Northwest India, Telangana and Maharashtra.