Alarming Groundwater Crisis of India
The reality around groundwater depletion in India is quite upsetting. Being the 7th largest and 2nd most populated country, India uses more groundwater water than China and USA combined. As per the Ministry of Jal Shakti, India extracts 393 Billion Cubic Metres of groundwater every year. WaterAid analyzed India’s groundwater crisis in a detailed manner and noted that India is yet to adopt using treated water or any other water source than groundwater. Surface water received from the monsoon is hardly kept and stored for future use. Being the 13th most water-stressed country in the world, the groundwater levels in northern India constantly declined at a rate of 8 centimeters per year from 1990 to 2014 according to an aqueduct report published by World Resources Institute. Continuing on this, according to the Fifth Minor Irrigation Census Report, which is published by the Ministry Of Jal Shakti the groundwater levels of India have decreased by 61% between 2007 and 2017 and of the total groundwater extracted, 89% was used in irrigation activities.