Publications

@article{NGUYEN2023101077,
title = {Assessing decentralized groundwater governance performance in the lower Mekong region: The case of Khon Kaen province, Thailand},
author = {Thi Phuoc Lai Nguyen and Preeyaporn Muenratch and Sangam Shrestha and Ashim Das Gupta and Saurav K.C.},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352801X23001789},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2023.101077},
issn = {2352-801X},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-12-30},
journal = {Groundwater for Sustainable Development},
pages = {101077},
abstract = {Decentralized groundwater management has been implemented in various forms in the Lower Mekong Region (LMR) aiming to improve the sustainability and equity of groundwater (GW) management. However, fragmented implementation and unclear delegation of responsibilities have hindered the success of these approaches. The Royal Thai government has been a pioneer in introducing comprehensive groundwater policies and has implemented formal measures for GW management for over five decades, including the decentralized GW management model introduced in 2011. This study examined the performance of GW governance (GWG) in the LMR through the case of Khon Kaen province, Thailand, and using the OECD water framework with contextualized indicators. Sen's slope estimation and the Mann-Kendal test were also utilized to look into the patterns of groundwater extraction data in the study area from 2000 to 2019 in relation to the policy timeline analysis. The findings revealed a significant increase in GW extraction for business usage after the implementation of decentralization, driven by urbanization, and economic and tourist development. The research also found that the rise of new water actors with divergent interests, marginalization, the absence of non-governmental actors, and a lack of scientific and technical capacities prevent the effective GWG. However, the study discovered that the majority of GWG principles are favorably related to one another, with regulatory frameworks, defined roles and duties, and coherent policy being closely associated with most GWG principles. On the other hand, trade-offs across sectors and users were seen to have a detrimental effect on other GWG principles. The findings contribute to evolving the GWG Theory of Change (TOC), centering on GW users. This challenges the conventional idea of addressing water shortage solely through increased infrastructure, emphasizes institutional pluralism and scientific evidence for market-based mechanisms, and addresses GW use disparities.},
keywords = {Groundwater extraction, Groundwater marginalized groups, Groundwater policy, New groundwater actors, OECD water governance framework, Theory of change},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}