The Quarterly Newsletter of the NGWA Transboundary Ground Water Interest Group Summer 2009, Issue No. 2 - TBGW Interest Group Committee includes Todd Jarvis (editor), Scott King, Richard Petersen, and Larry Cerrillo

Taming the Anarchy – Book Review

It is not often that you encounter a book that has a little bit for everyone – water historians, political scientists, economists, and yes, even hydrogeologists. But Tushaar Shah’s recent book Taming the Anarchy: Groundwater Governance in South Asia (Resources for the Future Press. Washington, D.C.) does just that. Based on Shah’s career as a senior researcher with the International Water Management Institute, the ground water revolution in South Asia, primarily India, is carefully chronicled. One of the more interesting examples of multidisciplinary research is a chapter titled “Aquifers and Institutions,” where Shah provides hydrographs of different hydrogeologic settings and describes the “gaming” or institutional dynamics in response to development in South Asia. He goes beyond the routine approach of many political geographers to describe institutions in ideal aquifer settings. He recognizes that confined aquifers and fractured rock aquifers provide unique challenges to developing institutions. These situations could easily be extended to just about anywhere in the world. This is an important book for water practitioners in both the “soft” and “hard” sciences.

Transboundary Ground Water News

New Web site marks 100th anniversary of Boundary Waters Treaty

To recognize the 100th anniversary of the Boundary Waters Treaty, the International Joint Commission (IJC) has launched a new Web site with a searchable database of its reports and orders of approval from 1914 to the present: http://bwt.ijc.org

Groundwater versus Ground Water – USGS adopts one word!

OFFICE OF GROUNDWATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM 2009.03

Subject: GROUNDWATER: Ground water versus groundwater

Yes, it is official “Groundwater” can be spelled as one word, as long as it is not an official document of the National Ground Water Association. Read more about the evolution of the word(s) in Michael Campana’s WaterWired blog: http://aquadoc.typepad.com/files/word-style-groundwater_article-in-gw-journal_03_31_09.pdf

Stygoscape

The Truth About Water Wars: Seven Experts Debate the Past and Present

Existence of Water Wars, Consider the Difficulty of Owning a Fluid Resource, and Examine the

Hot Spots for Future Conflict: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/

the_truth_about_water_wars/

National Ground Water Association 601 Dempsey Road, Westerville, Ohio 43081 USA © by the National Ground Water Association. All rights reserved.

Conferences on Transboundary Ground Water  Dilemma of Boundaries: Toward a New Concept of

Catchment Area, International Symposium on Water, October 20-22, RIHN, Kyoto, Japan

 Hydro-Diplomacy & Trans-Boundary Cooperation: Transforming the Border Security Paradigm, November 19-20, San Diego, California, USA

 Eleventh International Symposium on Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering (WMHE 2009), September 1-5, Ohrid, FYR of Macedonia http://wmhe.gf.ukim.edu.mk/

Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters introduces their first newsletter:

http://waterpartners.geo.orst.edu/info_and_pub.html

New Blog Worth a Visit: International Water Law Project Blog

http://internationalwaterlaw.org/wordpress/

The Quarterly Newsletter of the NGWA Transboundary Ground Water Interest Group Summer 2009, Issue No. 2, Page 2

Stygoscape

Gayle Leonard over at Thirsty in Suburbia blog made a nifty word cloud out of the nine transboundary water posts on Daniel Collins’ March 22 edition of his Crikey Creek blog. Thanks to Gayle for permission to use her word cloud.

Texas vs. Oklahoma Football Border War Set Aside - Federal judge refuses to throw out suit against Oklahoma water moratorium

A federal judge last week kept alive Irving's quest to bring water from Oklahoma to North Texas. Irving and the Oklahoma city of Hugo are suing two Oklahoma state water agencies over a moratorium on out-of-state water sales. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-watersuit_05met.ART.Central.Edition1.4b1e21b.html

Canada Shares Water With U.S. - Nitrate Headed South

A new study that warns about Canada's ground water becoming increasingly contaminated paints a particularly disturbing picture of the Fraser Valley's massive Abbotsford-Sumas aquifer. http://www.theprovince.com/groundwater+needs+build+muscle/1587040/story.html

India 19-26 million wells

U.S. 14 million wells

China 3.4-3.5 million wells

Germany 500,000 wells

S. Africa 500,000 wells

Iran 500,000 wells

Pakistan 500,000 wells

Mexico 70,000 wells

Taiwan 37,000 wells

Mongolia 27,000 wells

Ireland 10,000 wells

Malta 10,000 wells

Costa Rica 5,000 wells

Ground Water Factoids Presented at Recent Conference on

Geopolitics of Water, Bergen, Norway

Annual global use – 800 to 1000 km3 per year

50% of annual global use by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,

North China for agriculture

50% of global population relies on ground water for drinking water supplies

36% of river runoff comes from ground water

NGWA members welcome! Join the TBGW IG: http://www.ngwa.org/sig/transboundary/index.aspx

The race is on! 279 international river basins versus 273 international aquifers found in 2009.

Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) presented an updated version of the Transboundary Aquifers of the World Map at

WWF5: http://www.igrac.net/publications/320

Having trouble with the links?

Try pasting the link into your browser!