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

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

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.