HESS Opinions: The myth of groundwater sustainability in Asia

Schwartz, Franklin W.; Liu, Ganming; Yu, Zhongbo

doi:10.5194/hess-24-489-2020

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…However, to make this all work requires strong oversight of activities in the field. For groundwater management, such oversight is lacking primarily because of indifference to the problems and a lack of capacity (Schwartz et al, 2020). Similarly, with ASM, oversight is lacking for the same reasons.…”

Section: The Problems Of Data and Resource Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

2021

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Some of the poorest people in the world's poorest countries eke out a living in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Equipped with primitive tools like picks, shovels, buckets, and gold pans, they work mining valuable resources, like gold, diamonds, tin, lithium, rare earth elements, tantalum, and cobalt, and any other usable commodity, for example, sand, coal, or mica. The mining and refining processes are labor intensive and associated with a variety of health problems due to accidents, overheating, overexertion, dust inhalation, exposure to toxic chemicals and gases, violence, and illicit and prescription drug and alcohol addiction. Evident disadvantages with ASM are counterbalanced by the immense economic benefits. For many, the true scope and scale of ASM activities are unappreciated, along with the unknown health and societal impacts. Here, we set out to elucidate the scope of ASM beyond the recovery of familiar commodities, such as gold and diamonds. We adopt a holistic perspective toward health impacts of ASM, which includes unique occupational, environmental, and human/social drivers. A particular focus is poverty as a health risk with artisanal miners. They are commonly poverty-stricken people in poor countries, ensnared by a variety of poverty traps, which take a toll on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. ASM sometimes provides an opportunity to diversify income in the face of a decline in subsistence agriculture. However, ASM often trades one kind of generational poverty for another, coming along with serious health risks and turmoil associated with work in an informal "cash-rich" business. Plain Language Summary Many of the world's most valuable commodities, for example, gold, diamonds, and strategic metals, and less valuable resources, for example, sand, clay, and coal, are the products of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). The miners are commonly poor people with rudimentary tools, like shovels, buckets, and pans subsisting by working shallow ore deposits. Although an inefficient mining method, the large numbers of people can contribute substantially to a country's total production. Much of this mining occurs in distant, lawless areas like the Amazon River basin or the outback in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The work is grueling and dangerous because of violence and unregulated work sites. Miners suffer from the expected collection of occupational health risks, due to, for example, accidents, chemical exposures, dust inhalation, and lifting and lugging of heavy loads. Mining communities are at risk from incidental exposures to mercury, mosquito-borne diseases, poor sanitation, and more. Human and social problems also impact health. Our paper emphasizes poverty as a risk factor for disease, as miners are caught in poverty traps-unable to leave. Injuries and disease often must remain untreated because of costs and absent clinics.

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Section: The Problems Of Data and Resource Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

2021

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“…to adult miners. Our companion paper (Schwartz et al, 2020) provides a detailed discussion of hazards and health risks on this table. Table 1 is designed to be comprehensive and in so doing can obscure the fact that not every health impact should be expected at every ASM site.…”

Section: Potential Health Risksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditional ASM involves using primitive tools such as picks, shovels, gold pans, etc. to mine accessible metals, precious stones, colored stones, and industrial commodities such as sand, coal and more (Schwartz et al., 2020). Worldwide, such mining has gone on for centuries or even millennia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This lack of visibility is part of the data problem around ASM, exemplified in part by recycling of old information (World Bank, 2019). Studies of health are especially difficult because mining sites are often located in poorly accessible sites, chronically underservice in terms of health facilities, and because of security problems related to control by criminal and violent actors (Schwartz et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of Health Issues Related to Child Labor and Violence Within Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining

2021

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Around the world, several tens of millions of people work in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Traditional ASM involves using primitive tools such as picks, shovels, gold pans, etc. to mine accessible metals, precious stones, colored stones, and industrial commodities such as sand, coal and more (Schwartz et al., 2020). Worldwide, such mining has gone on for centuries or even millennia. Compared to modern industrial mining, ASM is inefficient and labor intensive. A single miner can only process a small quantity of material, limiting the capacity for resource recovery. However, because thousands or tens of thousands of people work a single deposit, the production of gold, diamonds or cobalt can comprise a significant fraction of a country's total production.

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“…Already today, over 40% of the applied irrigation originates from groundwater abstractions resulting in prolonged periods of persistent groundwater depletion (Famiglietti et al, 2011; Siebert et al, 2010). The irrigation‐induced overexploitation of groundwater resources is likely to exacerbate in the coming decades, which will increase the need for quantification and mapping of irrigation in order to facilitate critical information for policy makers and water resources managers (Schwartz et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating Net Irrigation Across the North China Plain Through Dual Modeling of Evapotranspiration

Koch

Zhang

Martinsen

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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Irrigation is the greatest human interference with the terrestrial water cycle. Detailed knowledge on irrigation is required to better manage water resources and to increase water use efficiency (WUE). This study applies a framework to quantify net irrigation at monthly timescale at a spatial resolution of 1 km 2 providing high spatial and temporal detail for regional water resources management. The study is conducted in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) in China encompassing the North China Plain (NCP), a global hot spot of groundwater depletion. Net irrigation is estimated based on the systematic evapotranspiration (ET) residuals between a remote sensing-based model and a hydrologic model that does not include an irrigation scheme. The results suggest an average annual net irrigation of 126 mm yr −1 (15.2 km 3 yr −1) for NCP and 108 mm yr −1 (18.6 km 3 yr −1) for HRB. It is found that net irrigation can be estimated with higher fidelity for winter crops than for summer crops. The simulated water balance for NCP is evaluated with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, and the net irrigation estimates can close the water balance gap. Annual winter wheat classifications reveal an increasing crop area with a trend of 2,200 km 2 yr −1. This trend is not accompanied by a likewise increasing trend in irrigation water use, which suggests an increased WUE in the NCP, which is further supported by net primary productivity data. The proposed framework has potential to be transferred to other regions and support decision makers to support sustainable water management. Plain Language Summary The irrigation of agricultural fields is taking place at unsustainable rates in many regions of the world. Despite the fact that irrigation is the largest anthropogenic impact on the natural water cycle, there exists limited knowledge of the applied irrigation amounts. This study applies an approach to estimate net irrigation, that is, the evaporative loss of irrigation water. The approach is applied on the Haihe River Basin in NorthEastern China. For the estimation of net irrigation, two sources of evapotranspiration (ET) are considered. First, baseline ET is obtained from a rainfed hydrologic model without irrigation. Second, ET is obtained from a satellite remote sensing model, which represents rainfed and irrigated ET. We study the ET differences of the two sources to derive net irrigation amounts at monthly timescale at 1 km 2 spatial resolution. Our analysis suggest an average annual net irrigation of 108 mm yr −1 (18.6 km 3 yr −1). The results are evaluated against annual winter wheat classification maps as well as satellite-based net primary productivity data and total water storage data (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE). Our results indicate an increasing water use efficiency as a result of promoting water savings in the agricultural sector.

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HESS Opinions: The myth of groundwater sustainability in Asia

Abstract: Across the arid regions of water-stressed countries of Asia, groundwater production for irrigated agriculture has led to water-level declines that continue to worsen.

Cited by 13 publications

References 27 publications

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

A Review of Health Issues Related to Child Labor and Violence Within Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining

Estimating Net Irrigation Across the North China Plain Through Dual Modeling of Evapotranspiration

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