Last updated December 2010
Author:
Sheetal Sekhri
Abstract:
This paper examines the trade-off between resource-intensive development and preservation of natural resources in
the context of groundwater. Use of public schemes that expand groundwater irrigation to mitigate poverty is challenged
as being unsustainable, especially when water tables around the world are rapidly depleting. This paper evaluates
the effects of one such scheme on groundwater use in northern India, with the intent to determine if these
schemes accelerate water depletion. On the contrary, I find that the program decreased total use of groundwater. I
propose a mechanism that explains these findings, and test it using village-level longitudinal census data on wells and
aquifer depth. The model predicts that public provision has a heterogeneous effect on the aquifers and it leads to sustainable
use, when the fixed costs for private well provision are high. Consistent with the predictions, I find that there
is a significant jump in the water-saving effects of the scheme at the water table depth at which the fixed costs of
water provision rise substantially (due to the technological limitations of surface pumps).
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