Urban groundwater use policy: balancing the benefits and risks in Developing Nations

Urban groundwater use policy: balancing the benefits and risks in Developing Nations [1]

This overview provides a strategic assessment of trends in the public and private use of groundwater for urban water-supply in developing cities. Is based primarily on GW-MATE field experience from World Bank-supported projects, especially in Brazil and India, and more widely in Latin America and Asia, together with preliminary information from a number of African cities.

This overview provides a strategic assessment of trends in the public and private use of groundwater for urban water-supply in developing cities – and an analysis of its benefits to users and the broader community, its risks in terms of compromising resource sustainability and of public-health hazard arising from urban pollution, and its implications as regards water utility investments. It is based primarily upon GW-MATE field experience from World Bank-supported projects, especially in Brazil and India, and more widely in Latin America and Asia, together with preliminary information from a number of African cities. This experience is synthesized to identify key policy issues, and to define appropriate policy responses and institutional approaches for more rational and secure resource use.

Publication Date:

01/10/2010

Author(s): & et al [2], Smita Misra [3], Stephen Foster [4], Ricardo Hirata [5]

Source: The World Bank [6]

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