Groundwater Crisis Needs More Than Just Wells

India's groundwater situation is precarious. It provides 80% of rural drinking water, 50% of urban drinking water, and nearly 90% of water used in agriculture, yet our extraction rate has soared to unsustainable levels.

- Souryabraata Mohapatra & Amit Mitra

India's water crisis is no longer a spectre of the future; it is a daily reality. As the summer of 2025 looms, farmers from Punjab to Tamil Nadu brace themselves for parched fields while urban residents grow anxious about taps running dry. Beneath the cracked earth and empty rivers lies an even more alarming threat: the relentless depletion of groundwater—the lifeline of Indian agriculture and rural drinking water supply. While government schemes like the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) attempt to address the issue, funding constraints and implementation delays continue to undermine progress.

India's groundwater situation is precarious. It provides 80% of rural drinking water, 50% of urban drinking water, and nearly 90% of water used in agriculture, yet our extraction rate has soared to unsustainable levels. The average groundwater extraction rate now stands at 60%, with states like Punjab and Rajasthan exceeding 150%, a dramatic rise from 32% in 1995. Despite significant government spending on water programs, groundwater is being consumed faster than it is replenished, turning a renewable resource into a diminishing asset.