**Abstract**

The crisis of governance and governability in the use of groundwater in coastal aquifers in arid zones is an element that contributes to the depletion and deterioration of the groundwater quality, due to processes of marine intrusion. Under the current exploration conditions, the governance crisis is characterized in the overall consumption of groundwater by humans, their animals, and by their industrials. Interpreting current national and international regulations applicable to this type of system confirms this area of investigation. This problem goes beyond the laws in all its terms regarding the management regimes and limitations on the availability of groundwater resources. If immediate actions are not taken by the government, the crisis of the system could become irreversible, with the consequent economic damage that this involves.

**Keywords:** governance, governability, depletion and deterioration of groundwater, arid areas

### **1. Introduction**

The arid regions have, as their main limitation for their development, the serious shortage of water. That is the reason why established producers in these areas use groundwater, this being probably the only source of supply. Currently, most of the coastal aquifers are being over-exploited, which results in a gradual and permanent decrease in the water table, compromising their non-renewable reserves, causing the phenomenon of marine intrusion. Faced with this problem, government entities have been preparing plans for the exploitation of groundwater, with the purpose of exploiting the water resource in an efficient, organized, and sustained manner. In the same way, to evaluate the hydrogeological conditions and characteristics of the subsoil of the aquifer, which allows determining the exploitable reserve of water in quantity and quality, feasible to exploit, in a long-term sustainable way, and propose measures to improve its management and conservation.

In these aquifers, the water shortage has been exacerbated in recent decades due to the frequent presence of droughts, the expansion of the unauthorized agricultural frontier with the consequent incorporation of new wells without a license to exploit groundwater, the accelerated population growth of cities, and the multiple economic activities that this brings with it. However, these aquifers, due to the lack of an adequate exploitation program, have been overexploited, which has resulted in a gradual and permanent decrease in the water table, compromising their non-renewable reserves, which has caused the phenomenon of

marine intrusion due to the high concentration of underground water exploitation wells in the area close to the sea line. Rapid economic expansion creates serious problems with the use of groundwater in arid zones, which normally have high rates of depletion [1].

The world's main aquifers on which hundreds of millions of people depend are depleting at an alarming rate according to data obtained through Grace satellites and released by NASA of the 37 largest aquifers scattered worldwide, from India and China to the USA or France, 21 of them have exceeded their sustainability point, which means that more water has been extracted from them than has been incorporated over the 10 years of observation [2]. The NASA study confirms the suspicions that many researchers already had, especially in cases of aquifers that are not rechargeable due to rain. Likewise, a concern in the field of environmental sciences and environmental law itself is the notable deterioration and decrease of wetlands and groundwater, taking into account that one of its causes is the phenomenon of climate change [3].

Along with the natural processes that generate water deficit problems in aquifer systems, there are also problems of a social nature. Governance occurs in the sense that the State is considered as the central agent of society's leadership; thus, their concern centers on "the ability to govern," considering society as the entity to be governed and administered [4]. Thus, from the perspective of governance, the problem and its solution emanate from the capacities of the government, with some independence from society, while Governance is part of the recognition that the government lacks sufficient capacities to solve social problems.

Therefore, the objectives of this chapter are as follows: (a) we will refer to governability when it comes to the institutional part conferred on the government and its institutions, that is, its capacity and range of action; (b) we will use governance when we refer to the joint action of government and society for a common positive objective (such as development), in order to achieve a balance. (c) In order to achieve integrated water management goals, it is necessary to harmonize the conditions and environment dynamics of the populations in relation to the hydrographic basins and the hydrological cycle [5].

### **2. Governance and governability**

Governance is denoted to have two closely related faces: the capacity to formulate adequate policies and the capacity to implement them. These capacities require the construction of consensus, the assembly of management systems, laws, national and regional public agencies, knowledge and information, practices, and the adequate administration of the system that implies social participation and the development of competences [6]. In the specific case of Chile, it has a water management system (SGA-CH) that can be considered as the only one of its kind, it considers water as a tradable commodity. This system is legally based on the National Water Code (CNA), which is at the same hierarchical level as the civil code [7].

After an exhaustive bibliographic review, seven versions of governance are identified that are highly relevant due to their degree of expression in the Colombian context and that are applicable to the South American sphere. These interpretations are shown in **Table 1** and **Figure 1** [8].

If we want to make optimal use of our valuable groundwater resources and ensure their sustainability, we must manage them with care [9]. In practice, the hierarchical and centralized management scheme in force for more than four


#### **Table 1.**

*Governance approaches.*

#### **Figure 1.** *Elements about the water governance crisis.*

decades has been continued, and although the implementation of a water governance model from the perspective of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) seems quite distant, there is the possibility of launching public actions from the territories from which networks are structured, articulate interests, and undertake collective actions [10].

### **3. The Dublin declaration**

In the Dublin statement, according to international meetings on water resources management, it is recognized that water is essentially an economic good. Economists have insisted on the need to recognize that water is an economic good, so it should be possible to govern its distribution through the market [11]. There are a large number of approaches that explain the difficulty in improving water management systems, among them we have the lack of methods to design strategies that allow moving step by step from an existing situation to a desired situation [5].

The Dublin principles and the coherent action plans were collected at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 [12], in the following terms: "A global ordination of fresh water as a limited and vulnerable resource and the integration of sectoral water plans and programs, within the national economic and social policy, are measures that are of the utmost importance among those adopted in the 1990s." There are controversies over the issue of the results of changes in water governance. This, we believe, can best be characterized as an effect identification problem and concerns the question of the effects of changes in governance on a wide variety of empirical phenomena and associated policy issues [13].

#### **4. International instruments on groundwater use**

It can be said that rarely, international law has taken into account groundwater, being known that there are many surface water treaties, groundwater is not nominally included in the scope of these instruments, especially if it is "related "with territorial surface waters. Some legal instruments contain specific groundwater conditions and do not address it exclusively. FAO and UNESCO provide a variety of mandatory and non-mandatory instruments of international law in this important field [14].

Likewise, there are directives on water resources and environmental treaties that contain provisions on groundwater, as is the case of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries that suffer severe drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa. There is also the United Nations Convention on the law of the uses of international watercourses for purposes other than navigation. These statements are important but are generalized to resources of all kinds and in the second case to international watercourses, not being specific to the groundwater issue, being a strategic basis to address it.

There are also interstate agreements on groundwater or with groundwater provisions. United States, Idaho - Washington in the special form of the Inter-institutional Agreement on Coordinated Management Aquifer Groundwater Pullman-Moscow [14], it is agreed that management of groundwater resources in the aquifer will be in accordance with the management plan of groundwater adopted by the Pullman Moscow Water Resources Committee (PMWRC) to the extent that such plan can be implemented and administered according to the laws of each state.

#### **5. National instruments on groundwater use: Peruvian case**

In Peru, the granting of rights to use groundwater is regulated in Title IV of the Water Resources Law (article 110). In the aforementioned law, two additional provisions are required: the first states that in case of cessation of the use, either permanently or temporarily, the holders of the rights must adopt the necessary security measures in order to avoid causing damage to the aquifer and third parties. The second indicates that it is the obligation of groundwater users to install

and maintain piezometers in the quantity and separation determined as provided by the corresponding authority, information which must be communicated to the "Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA)" [15].

According to Supreme Decree D.S. N ° 080-84-AG of September 6, 1984, the underground water of the pampas of La Yarada, and the D.S. N ° 020-87-AG of May 1, 1987 gives an extension for two more years. By means of Ministerial Resolution No. 0555-89-AG/DGAS of December 5, 1989, the execution of works intended to extract groundwater in the pampas of La Yarada is prohibited, later by RM No. 696-98-AG of December 16 of 1998 and based on the hydrogeological study of the Pampas de La Yarada, the closure of the increased exploitation of groundwater in the aquifer is declared. With a ruling by the Constitutional Court through a ruling issued in file No. 1290–2002-AC/TC, it ruled on the declaration of closure and the non-application of regulations for the regularization of water licenses in the area declared closed.

Regional Ordinance No. 009-2004-CR/GOB.REG.TACNA, declared of regional interest the intangibility and conservation of groundwater and rough land in the state of the pampas of La Yarada. In 2006, by means of Supreme Decree No. 065- 2006-AG, the conservation and preservation of the Caplina valley water resource was declared of public necessity and national interest, extending the closure to the entire Caplina aquifer, ratifying it in the year 2009 through RJ N ° 327-2009-ANA of June 15, which declares the aquifer of the Caplina river valley closed, where the La Yarada aquifer is included, the prohibition of execution of groundwater exploitation works and the provision that the Local Water Administrators are responsible for the control and surveillance of the aquifers that are in their respective jurisdictional areas.

The R.J. N ° 201-2010-ANA, of March 22, 2010, ratifies the measures for the conservation and preservation of groundwater, based on the study "Numerical Modeling of the La Yarada Aquifer", which concludes that there is an overexploitation of the aquifer and recommends maintaining the closure of the exploitation of the aquifer system. Finally, in 2015, the D.S. N ° 007-2015-MINAGRI, in its second complementary provision establishes that "The areas declared closed prohibit their condition, proceeding exceptionally and for the only time to formalize or regularize water use licenses, in accordance with the provisions of this Supreme Decree".
