Policy Preferences about Managed Aquifer Recharge for Securing Sustainable Water Supply to Chennai City, India

Water

Norbert Brunner¹  Markus Starkl¹  Ponnusamy Sakthivel¹  Lakshmanan Elango²  Subbaiah Amirthalingam¹  Chinniyampalayam E. Pratap¹  Munuswamy Thirunavukkarasu⁴  Sundaram Parimalarenganayaki²  Sharon Megdal³ 

[1] Centre for Environmental Management and Decision Support (CEMDS), Vienna A-1180, Austria; E-Mails:;Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai 600025, India; E-Mails:Centre for Environmental Management and Decision Support (CEMDS), Vienna A-1180, Austria;;SPT Consultancy Services, Chennai 600011, India; E-Mail:

关键词: managed aquifer recharge (MAR);    infiltration ponds;    check dams;    rainwater harvesting (RWH);    Chennai;    Tamil Nadu (TN);   

DOI  :  10.3390/w6123739

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The objective of this study is to bring out the policy changes with respect to managed aquifer recharge (focusing on infiltration ponds), which in the view of relevant stakeholders may ease the problem of groundwater depletion in the context of Chennai City; Tamil Nadu; India. Groundwater is needed for the drinking water security of Chennai and overexploitation has resulted in depletion and seawater intrusion. Current policies at the municipal; state and national level all support recharge of groundwater and rainwater harvesting to counter groundwater depletion. However, despite such favorable policies, the legal framework and the administrative praxis do not support systematic approaches towards managed aquifer recharge in the periphery of Chennai. The present study confirms this, considering the mandates of governmental key-actors and a survey of the preferences and motives of stakeholder representatives. There are about 25 stakeholder groups with interests in groundwater issues, but they lack a common vision. For example, conflicting interest of stakeholders may hinder implementation of certain types of managed aquifer recharge methods. To overcome this problem, most stakeholders support the idea to establish an authority in the state for licensing groundwater extraction and overseeing managed aquifer recharge.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.