Ethical issues in relation to intensive groundwater use

Large engineering structures have been constructed since early civilisations to develop irrigation and urban water supply. These hydraulic structures and their operation contributed significantly to the building of the civil society: cooperation and not confrontation was necessary for the common benefit. These are the so-called hydraulic civilizations, like those developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia more than fifty centuries ago. Development of groundwater through wells and/or infiltration galleries was at a smaller scale and usually did not require important societal cooperation. During the first two thirds of the 20th century, most of the large water developments were based on surface water structures (dams and canals). Most of them were designed, constructed and operated by government agencies and heavily subsidised with public money. Nevertheless, the second half of the 20th century might be characterised by a strong development of groundwater, mainly in and and semiarid regions. Usually, many individual users with little or no government planning and control have performed this development. The growth in groundwater use has contributed significantly to provide food and potable water in and and semiarid regions. This often spectacular increase in groundwater use has been mainly driven by economic reasons: the full direct cost of groundwater irrigation is usually a small fraction of the value of the crops obtained with such groundwater abstraction. Really this has been a silent revolution. Nevertheless, mainly because of the lack of knowledge and planning, this wildcat groundwater development has caused significant problems in a few regions. Such problems are often exaggerated or unknown because the lack of hydrogeological experience among many water planners who are often surface water-engineers. One usual false paradigm or hydromyth among water resource planners is that groundwater is an unreliable or fragile resource. For them: "almost always every water well becomes dry or brackish after a few years". Another hydromyth is that groundwater mining (or development of non-renewable groundwater resources) is always an unethical attitude because it is unsustainable and damages future generations. It will be shown that this general statement is wrong because it only presents a simplistic perspective of a rather complicated problem. There is not a blueprint. Each case is site-specific and all the factors (technological, economic, social, and ecological) should be assessed as accurately as possible, in order to make a scientifically sound and politically feasible decision. In summary, long-term groundwater mining may be ethical or unethical depending on the physical and socio-economic circumstances.