Legal issues of intensive use of groundwater

It is very difficult to give a general and abstract description of groundwaters, since such a description is closely linked to the physical characteristics and historical evolution of each country. However, there are common trends in modern water law, such as the prevalence of public ownership of groundwaters and the scant attention given to private ownership; other common trends are the extensive intervention by the public authorities into public and private water, as well as legislation that is heavily orientated towards environmental protection. The general characteristics might also include the value of hydrological planning in the regulation of water management and the problems in adapting this management to the limits of a particular basin, although this normally applies to surface waters. Neither can it be said that law has exploited all the possible consequences of the principle of the hydrological cycle which would then call for a substantially similar legal framework for surface and ground waters, and the promotion of joint management for all of them. In the international context, one can find many more conventional norms devoted to surface than to ground waters, where these regulations are an exception. At any event, the growing use of groundwaters means that we can certainly expect an improvement in the legal regulations over the next few years, at a domestic as well as international level.