This story originally appeared on the CGIAR website.
Much of South Asia’s prosperity, both literally and figuratively, rests upon vast reserves of groundwater. Some of the highest-yielding aquifers in the world supply water for irrigated agriculture (where 90 percent of withdrawals are directed), industry, and daily domestic needs. However, it all depends on a delicate balance; for sustainability, groundwater outflows, including long-term extractions, must not exceed natural recharge. Across much of South Asia this balance has been disrupted, with groundwater tables dropping by more than a meter per year in some dry areas. Groundwater depletion threatens agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions where more than 600 million people are severely food insecure. Depletion reduces flows to rivers and wetlands and reduces dilution of pollution. Having to pump water from greater depths also requires more energy. In India alone, irrigation pumps consume 18 percent of all output from power plants, leading to 50–60 million tons of carbon emissions a year.
The groundwater crisis stands out as one of the most pressing water–energy–food–ecosystems (WEFE) nexus challenges in South Asia, which is why the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains has dedicated considerable resources to addressing this challenge over the past three years. Groundwater is challenging to govern because, as a common pool resource, it is accessible to anyone who can dig a well, yet it is invisible to users and difficult to monitor and regulate. But groundwater is more than a complex problem with multiple causes and effects. It is a truly “wicked problem” that resists resolution because of the complex interplay of contradictory and constantly changing conditions. Addressing this multifaceted issue requires integrated solutions that combine technology, regulation, and community-driven inclusive approaches.
While there have been many attempts to resolve groundwater depletion, there have been few successes. Long-term solutions need to be collective and far more systemic than simple technical fixes. NEXUS Gains’ approach in South Asia began with a diagnostic analysis of the conceptual framing of stakeholders and how they are motivated to act. The framing can be boiled down to three main elements: first is knowledge — the ability to use information to achieve better groundwater outcomes; second is motivation — the desire to address the challenges; and third is agency — the ability to act on knowledge and motivation. NEXUS Gains recognized that while individual tools could enhance one or more of these elements, combinations of tools addressing all three can work better to empower stakeholders to collaboratively solve groundwater problems.
The first element: Knowledge
A prime example of a tool that empowers through knowledge is the Groundwater Management Information System (GMIS) developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest user of groundwater. In Punjab, the breadbasket of the country, groundwater depletion is a significant challenge. In 2019, the province passed a new Water Act in an attempt to curb over-extraction. However, authorities and other stakeholders lacked knowledge of how many tubewells there are, where they are located, and the impact of pumping on groundwater levels. The GMIS shows all tubewell locations and their depths, as well as the groundwater table and selected water quality parameters in real time, and helps identify depletion hotspots. What started as a pilot with the Punjab Irrigation Department is now being extended to other provinces — a growing system that utilizes up-to-date data to generate information to support decision making under the Water Act.
This is just one of the NEXUS Gains outcomes driving knowledge uptake. Also in Pakistan, flux towers are generating important understanding of water and carbon fluxes in irrigated crops, with the ultimate aim of reducing pumping by enhancing irrigation water use efficiency. The water resource simulator Pywr is being used to model groundwater strategies throughout the Indus Basin. An online Water Productivity Atlas for India (the world’s largest groundwater user) is a one-stop shop for visualizing the water impacts — including on aquifers — of different crops and agricultural systems, over time and across geographies.
Another tool that supports knowledge development is the solar irrigation pump sizing tool, created for a government solarization initiative in India. This tool provides farmers with guidance on the “right” pump size for their farm, considering both current and future groundwater scenarios. By using this tool, farmers can avoid overpaying for an oversized pump, which helps reduce the risk of groundwater depletion, whilst also ensuring they don’t purchase a pump that fails to meet their crop’s water needs
Additionally, knowledge of tools and WEFE nexus approaches has spread rapidly among professionals, students, and policymakers, including through curricula and summer schools developed and run by NEXUS Gains in Nepal and Pakistan.
The second element: Motivation
Experiential games are a powerful tool that not only build knowledge but can also inspire motivation. A notable example is the groundwater game implemented by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and partners in India, and extended with IWMI’s involvement in Nepal. This game simulates the effects of farmers’ decisions about what crops to grow on the groundwater table and on others in the community. They can see how their individual incentives could deplete the aquifer, or how they might cooperate to match crop demand to the available water, while also considering other competing uses of groundwater for domestic and livestock purposes.
Following the games, community-wide debriefing enables communities to link game experiences and outcomes with their real-life water management challenges and motivates them to explore how they might develop rules to govern groundwater. The shift in motivation this instills is most impactful in combination with other supportive tools for knowledge and agency, such as participatory groundwater mapping and crop water budgeting. Comprehensive toolboxes not only enhance motivation for groundwater governance but also provide water users with opportunities to acquire knowledge and foster collective agency.
NEXUS Gains is also conducting ex-ante scenarios of changes in cropping patterns to address water depletion in Pakistan, in response to a government request. Specifically, researchers have evaluated the potential water savings from taxing certain crops, and found that a 30 percent tax on sugarcane, rice, and cotton could save 8.73 million acre-feet of water from agriculture. However, under a hotter, drier climate virtually all these savings are nullified. Higher evaporation rates and less precipitation increase irrigation demands meaning that the water must remain in agriculture to meet these needs.
The third element: Agency
Agency is crucial for translating knowledge and motivation into meaningful action. For effective groundwater governance the most powerful form of agency is collective action, which empowers communities to work with government authorities and other relevant stakeholders to implement large-scale strategies. One example is the groundwater recharge movement in India where communities have successfully worked together to promote managed aquifer recharge. IWMI has pioneered underground transfer of floods for irrigation in India, demonstrating that it is possible to recharge aquifers while simultaneously mitigating the destructive impacts of floods. NEXUS Gains has scaled this strategy, working with district governments on the construction of specialized ponds and recharge wells in hundreds of villages. In 2024, NEXUS Gains also supported ICRISAT in continuous monitoring of the hydrological processes in a long-running project with the Government of Uttar Pradesh, India to manage aquifer recharge using earth bunds constructed around fields. In desiccated catchments of 250 hectares, this has contributed to increases in groundwater tables, and the revival of a number of dry wells resulting in sustainable crop intensification.
Innovations also offer individual farmers new choices. Research by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) shows that direct seeded rice, without the need for transplanting or flooding, has a 18–50 percent higher water productivity than puddled transplanted rice. IRRI has documented farmers’ water use patterns and worked with local governments, extensions services, and agricultural universities in Haryana, India to improve the targeted promotion of the direct seeding technology, which now covers more than 10 percent of agricultural areas. They also used the insights on water use and co-learning with a network of 200 farmer collaborators to support revisions of training materials. Meanwhile in Nepal, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)’s study of water use and feed choices in dairy production has demonstrated that biofermentation and enriched shredded straw can increase productivity of milk per unit of water, while simultaneously lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
NEXUS Gains research has also tackled gender-related barriers to agency, including the development of the Women’s Empowerment in Energy Score. This tool tracks changes in women’s agency over time, such as their access to energy technologies for water pumping, helping to highlight progress and areas for further empowerment. NEXUS Gains has also developed business and finance models to support women accessing clean energy solutions in South Asia, either for more sustainable groundwater pumping or off-farm opportunities. This includes direct engagement with the private sector on financing solar-powered irrigation in Pakistan, and engagement with non-governmental organizations on a variety of business models for clean energy solutions in India.
Finally, a major study on women’s agency and empowerment in Nepal led to the launch of the WEFE Nexus Leadership Program, fostering a cadre of women WEFE sector professionals who are now challenging structural barriers to equitable WEFE solutions through transformative leadership.
Over three years, NEXUS Gains has worked across South Asia, applying diverse approaches: real-time data collection, paper-based games, construction of earthen structures, and more. These approaches may not look like they have much in common, but they all serve a common purpose: generating knowledge, fostering motivation, and building agency among diverse groundwater stakeholders. Collectively, these efforts empower communities to address the critical challenge of groundwater depletion by promoting improved governance and more sustainable management practices.