ABSTRACT
Rapid growth in groundwater use is a central aspect of the world’s water story, especially since 1950. Shallow wells and muscle-driven lifting devices have been in vogue in many parts of the world for the millennia. In British India (which included today’s India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), wells accounted for more than 30 percent of irrigated land even in 1903 when only 14 percent of cropped area was irrigated (HMSO 1905). With the rise of the tubewell and pump technology, groundwater use soared to previously unthinkable levels after 1950. In Spain, groundwater use increased from 2 km3 per year to 6 km3 during 1960–2000 before it stabilized (Martinez Cortina and Hernandez-Mora 2003). In the United States, groundwater share in irrigation has increased, from 23 percent in 1950 to 42 percent in 2000 (Hutson et al. 2004). In the Indian sub-continent, groundwater use soared from around 10–20 km3 before 1950 to 240–260 km3 today. Data on groundwater use are scarce; however, Figure 12.1 attempts to backcast the probable trajectories of growth in groundwater use in selected countries. In the United States, Spain, Mexico, and north African countries like Morocco and Tunisia, total groundwater use peaked during the 1980s, or thereabouts. In south Asia and the North China Plains, the upward trend began during the 1970s and is still continuing. A third wave of growth in groundwater use is likely in the making in many regions of Africa and in some south and southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
