Groundwater Governance in Light of the 2030 Agenda - The Case of Competition for Groundwater in Azraq, Jordan

The 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relies on five core principles, (1) universality, (2) leave no one behind, (3) indivisibility & interconnectedness of SDGs, (4) inclusiveness, and (5) multi-stakeholder partnerships. The integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hence requires the mobilization of synergies and the mitigation of trade-offs between economic, social and ecological dimensions of sustainable development. This can be a particular challenge when it comes to the governance of natural resources. In many rural-urban settings, close links can be observed between SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 15 (life on land). Particularly in water-scarce countries, the question arises as to how water use among different sectors can be governed in line with the 2030 Agenda core principles. We analyze this question using the case of Azraq in Eastern Jordan, where groundwater resources have long been overexploited, and where households, smallholder farmers, profit-oriented farmers and ecosystems compete for limited groundwater resources. According to official data, in 2017 total water abstraction exceeded the safe yield of the aquifer almost threefold. A socially just and ecologically viable transformation of agricultural production and groundwater governance in Azraq is therefore urgently required. Therefore, we assess which formal and informal factors influence decisions of groundwater users drawing upon a comprehensive literature review, a Social Network Analysis and semi-structured interviews with government representatives at multiple levels, local water waters, donors and civil society. To understand the interaction between actors, institutions and ecosystems we apply the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework and the concept of Networks of Adjacent Action Situations (NAAS) in which key adjacent action situations are identified that explain the focal action situation of groundwater overuse. Based on this mapping and the analysis of competing SDGs, we analyse in how far the core principles are reflected in groundwater governance. On this basis, we identified entry points on how to improve natural resource governance in the light of the 2030 Agenda. We find that a diversity of adjacent action situations at various governance influence what happens on the ground in Azraq. However, overall the Kingdom’s organization of political power - the so-called “shadow state” - influences policies and controls the economy as well as water resources. In order to improve groundwater governance and to achieve respective SDGs, deeper reforms are needed to free policymaking and institutions from shadow state influence and to empower local water users in decision-making. As such, the case study shows strong limitations of autocratic regimes to true socio-ecological transformations and the need to pay more attention to various planetary boundaries and to conditions for change in non-democratic settings in the global South.