Laying the Groundwork for Raising Awareness on Water Related Issues with a Socio-Hydrogeological Approach: The Inle Lake Case Study (Southern Shan State, Myanmar)

Abstract

Translating scientific findings into concrete action for (ground)water protection should be fundamental component of any hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical assessment, thus ensuring that scientific outcomes have a positive impact in the real world. To this purpose, understanding the water-related issues and the perceived criticalities by the water users is an asset, especially for earth scientists who are often the first contact with local communities during in situ measurements. By presenting the results of a socio-hydrogeological assessment in the Inle Lake area, this paper aims at demonstrating the feasibility and added value of this approach. In conjunction with groundwater sampling, public engagement activities were conducted by administering semi-structured interviews at a household level in each monitoring site. Hydrogeochemical data show that groundwater is characterized by an elevated hardness and by the presence of trace metals in solution due to the low redox potential. The work provides suggestions on how to translate the hydrogeochemical information associated to (i) the impact of climate change on water supply and availability, and (ii) the presence of geogenic groundwater contamination (Fe, Mn, As) into accessible information for local communities and water users’ associations. Sharing knowledge and promoting capacity building would also help to assess the reasons for the discrepancy between self-reported perception of groundwater quality (e.g., hardness) and analytical results.

Spatial and temporal assessment of human-water interactions at the Inle Lake, Myanmar: a socio-hydrological DPSIR analysis

“…The volume of Inle Lake is defined by Ballot et al (2017) with a maximum depth of 3.7 m and a mean depth of 1.52 m. The average annual inflow is estimated to be 1.1 × 10 8 m 3 per year, maximum water storage capacity of 3.5 × 10 7 m 3 , no stratification (Thin et al, 2016), and a residence of 0.32 years (Khaung et al, 2021). Although high concentrations of nutrients could be assumed from floating garden agriculture and the intensifying agriculture in the surroundings (Akaishi et al, 2006), findings from recent water quality assessments show medium concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous (Ballot et al, 2017;Re et al, 2021). The high resilience to accumulation of anthropogenic inputs of the lake is caused by its low residence time and calcite precipitation causing the removal of phosphorous (Re, et al, 2018;Thin et al, 2016).…”

“…The assessment of heavy metals in sediments resulted in high values for arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) (Aung et al, 2019) presumably from anthropogenic sources. Groundwater contains high concentrations of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and As (Re et al, 2021). Mn values were found as well by Thin et al (2020b), but with main sources from natural weathering processes and lithogenic origin.…”

“…Furthermore, the ineffectiveness to target individual drivers increases the need to understand the-often nonlinear-relationships in complex socioecological systems for developing sustainable management strategies (Ormerod et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2015). The complexity of these cause-effect relationships requires an interdisciplinary research approach of combining social and natural sciences (Boretti & Rosa, 2019;Di Baldassarre et al, 2019;Re et al, 2021;Rockström et al, 2009).…”

“…The lake is of particular importance for its inhabitants since they strongly depend on the ecosystem services it provides, such as the provision of clean drinking water from groundwater sources. Re et al (2021) applied a socio-hydrogeological approach to understand the water user's perspective while undertaking a hydrogeochemical assessment. The combination of household interviews and scientific field measurements highlights the need for integrating social and environmental methods at this study area and for extending this approach to a broader perspective.…”

A Conceptual Socio-Hydrogeological Model Applied to Sustainable Water Management. Case Study of the Valdivia River Basin, Southwestern Ecuador

“…Socio-hydrogeological studies highlight the link between water and society as a factor of great importance that hydrogeologists must address, and in this way, know the problems present in the water resource and the criticalities on the part of the community. Furthermore, this link will allow obtaining viable and favourable results for users, ensuring strategies that its inhabitants will be able to cope with for its correct use [16,20], demonstrating the importance of socialization with the population in any research work.…”