ABSTRACT
For centuries, groundwater has been exploited and used by a variety of actors without previous assessments of groundwater resources and without any attempt to manage these resources rationally. But access to groundwater has gradually become easier and its exploitation has dramatically increased – as documented in the previous chapter. As a result, wells started interfering with each other and aggregated pumping rates became large enough to significantly modify the groundwater regimes. Side effects of individual pumping operations – such as falling water levels, wetland degradation and reduction of spring discharge and base flows – are to a large extent spontaneously transferred to third parties, not merely to other groundwater exploiters, but to the entire local community and the local environment. In other words, groundwater pumping produces externalities. And vice versa, numerous activities of individuals and local communities unrelated to groundwater withdrawal also produce considerable externalities to groundwater systems and their exploiters – especially by polluting groundwater.
