India is running out of water

[Vinay Baindur]

https://graphics.reuters.com/INDIA-ENVIRONMENT-WATER/0100B2C41FD/index.html

India is running out of water

An increasing population and inadequate surface water is fast depleting the country of its groundwater resources. More than a third of the country's population lives in water-stressed areas.

By Gurman Bhatia

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Groundwater has been declining at an alarming rate in India, which is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in less than a decade.

More than a third of India’s population lives in water-stressed areas and this number is set to grow due to depleting groundwater and rising urbanisation.

India is one of 17 countries facing extremely high water stress, according to a recent report by the World Resources Institute.

India’s water stress has increased in the last few decades as borewells were dug to extract more and more groundwater for water-guzzling crops such as rice and sugarcane.

Ideally, surface water should be stored during monsoon season and used throughout the year instead of groundwater. India has built many large dams in the last few decades, but still there are hundreds of incomplete dams and successive federal governments have spent billions of dollars over the years to complete them. But several are still unfinished due to bureaucratic sloth, corruption, opposition to land acquisition and lack of coordination within the government.

Government data released in July 2019 shows that in 2017, 109 districts out of the 684 for which data was available, used more groundwater than what was replenished by both natural and artificial processes, a measurement known as groundwater “recharge”.

DISTRICT-WISE POPULATION AND GROUNDWATER UTILISATION IN INDIA (2017)

Colour represents percentage of the groundwater recharge utilised

JalpaiguriDarjeelingSonitpurPuruliaRaigadThaneChandrapurArariaEast SinghbhumCoochbeharVizianagaramEast GodavariPalgharWest ChamparanRohtasDhubriVisakhapatnamHowrahKanniyakumariAurangabadGiridihSuratBhagalpurNagaonPalamauYeotmalGwaliorRanchiNandedAlappuzhaBirbhumPurba MediniporeDarbhangaSurgujaBankaSundergarhSupaulMorenaPaschim MediniporeKottayamKhargonePanchmahalsMadhubaniKrishnaGanganagarGunturMayurbhanjGanjamKeonjharGulbargaSaharsaWest GodavariKurnoolEast ChamparanKolhapurCuttackJabalpurPrakasamThiruvannamalaiAnandErnakulamRaichurBurdwanRewaKannurSitamarhiBankuraSamastipurParbhaniMaldaSrikakulamBokaroKhedaDahodHooghlySultanpurKhurdaKollamPilibhitJhansiChandauliBalrampurMysoreNagpurBegusaraiBilaspurBahraichNawadaDhuleBellaryJalnaChhindwaraPurniaLaturSonbhadraBhojpurPalakkadLakhimpur KhiriSiwanThrissurVadodaraKozhikodeNashikMadhepuraSagarSangliChittoorMandyaKushi NagarBhavnagarRaebareliSitapurAkolaPatnaBeedBalasoreHardoiShajahanpurJajpurMahrajganjDharwadMirzapurUnnaoCuddaloreSiddharth NagarGondaUttar DinajpurVaishaliDakshin KannadaRaipurMaunath BhanjanAdilabadJamnagarBalliaSaranKatiharMedakTrivandrumGorakhpurGhazipurJunagadhRajkotKhammamDeoriaAzamgarhVirudhunagarLucknowBastiGayaNorth 24-ParganasBarabankiSataraHaridwarKancheepuramBareillyMalappuramMuzaffarpurSatnaMahabubnagarBijapurBijnorNalandaAligarhDharNorth West DelhiMaduraiThiruvallurMainpuriPrayagrajdummySabarkanthaBhopalFatehpurMuzzafarnagarAhmedabadPuneGopalganjAurangabadNalgondaBuldhanaRampurFarrukhabadKarimnagarAmbedkar NagarNizamabadBelagaviDhanbadJaunpurMathuraSolapurKanpur NagarAhmednagarPratapgarhJalgaonBudaunRangareddyDurgKachchhMeerutMurshidabadTiruchyAmravatiAnantapurMoradabadBulandshaharTiruppurdummyWest DelhiTumkurVillupuramNadiaDavangereBagalkoteUjjainErodeVaranasidummyUdaipurKotaAmrohaAgraThanjavurChuruDindigulFirozabadBanaskanthaMahesanaIndoreNorth East DelhiVelloreKrishnagiriBharatpurSaharanpurThirunelveliCoimbatoreBarmerPaliFaridabadGhaziabadGurdaspurBhilwaraBengaluru UrbanSalemAmritsarAjmerFerozepurBikanerChennaiJalorSikarLudhianaAlwarNagaurSouth West DelhiPatialaJhunjhununJodhpurJaipurJalandharSouth DelhiHyderabad0people so far200 millionpeople so far400 millionpeople so far600 millionpeople so far800 millionpeople so far1 billionpeople so far1.1 billionpeople so far0 percentof rechargeutilised102030405060708090100150200250

Each bar represents a district

Height represents the population of a district

Several sparsely populated, rural districts in the country have safe levels.

Thane district in the western state of Maharashtra is most populated but groundwater level is still safe due to large dams in the district.

Nearly 750 million people in India are living in regions where groundwater usage is at safe levels.

The cities of Mysore and Nagpur are using fifty percent of the groundwater recharge.

Several districts in the top two populous states — Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra — have semi-critical levels.

Several urban centres across the country are sites of overexploited groundwater.

Bengaluru, a rapidly growing information technology hub with a population of over 9.6 million, is highly water-stressed.

More than 200 million people in India live in places that are overexploiting groundwater. That is equivalent to the entire population of Brazil.

As you scroll down, more groundwater is being exploited

OVEREXPLOITED DISTRICTS

As areas become more urban, the high demand increases the dependence on groundwater, touching critical levels.

CRITICAL DISTRICTS

Districts that have groundwater utilisation over 70 percent are water-stressed.

SEMI-CRITICAL DISTRICTS

When the withdrawal volume exceeds the water replenished in a region, one ends up in the overexploited zone.

Data published by the Central Ground Water Board in India suggests that when city and village blocks were compared to the last review done in 2013, fewer blocks recorded safe levels in 2017. The percentage of overexploited blocks increased.

While 388 blocks improved, 504 deteriorated. 4,835 blocks saw no change.

DECREASE OF SAFE BLOCKS BETWEEN 2013 AND 2017

CRITICAL

OVEREXPLOITED

SEMI-CRITICAL

SAFE

2013

SALINE

2017

0

20

40

60

80

100 percent

Most of the problematic areas are concentrated in a few states. While Rajasthan suffers because of being a land-locked desert, districts in Punjab and Haryana are overexploited due to their heavy use of groundwater for irrigation. Several other water-stressed districts are rapidly growing urban centres where groundwater ends up being the fallback to meet increasing demand amidst the lack of adequate sources.

POPULATION AND GROUNDWATER UTILISATION IN INDIA BY STATE (2017)

Each block represents a district with available data. Width represents population.

Punjab

Rajasthan

Haryana

Delhi

Tamil Nadu

Telangana

Uttar Pradesh

Karnataka

Uttarakhand

Gujarat

Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Kerala

Chhattisgarh

West Bengal

Bihar

Odisha

Andhra Pradesh

Goa

Jammu & Kashmir

Jharkhand

Assam

Tripura

Mizoram

Manipur

Nagaland

Meghalaya

Arunachal Pradesh

Sikkim

Due to growing water-intensive crops like paddy, Punjab and Haryana use groundwater for flood irrigation.

With the state's arid climate, groundwater overexploitation has affected majority of Rajasthan's population.

Policy changes have vastly improved the usage in Andhra Pradesh

States in the north-east with their abundant rainfall and hilly terrain don't use much of their groundwater.

India's groundwater usage exceeds that of China and the United States combined. They, like many other countries, instead depend on surface water for their daily fresh water requirements.

ANNUAL FRESHWATER WITHDRAWAL BY TYPE AND COUNTRY

100

200

300

400

500

600 million litres

Height represents population

GROUNDWATER

SURFACE WATER

India

Despite being the second most populous country, India is the biggest freshwater consumer in the world - 39% of which is groundwater.

China

USA

Philippines

Mexico

Russia

Brazil

Turkey

Argentina

Germany

Spain

Saudi Arabia

100

200

300

400

500

600 million litres

Per capita water availability has fallen to 1,545 cubic metres in 2011 from 5,177 cubic metres in 1950. Less than 1,700 cubic metres water availability is considered a water-stressed condition, whereas below 1,000 cubic metres is considered as a water scarcity condition. Availability in the South Asian country is forecast to drop below 1,300 by 2041.

PER CAPITA WATER AVAILABITY IN INDIA (M³/YEAR)

5,000 m³/year

4,000

3,000

2,000

Projection

WATER STRESSED

1,000

WATER SCARCITY

0

‘30

1960

‘70

‘80

‘90

2000

‘10

2050

‘20

‘40

Note: Figures for West Bengal districts are from 2013.
Sources: Central Ground Water Board of India; EnviStats 2018; Census of India (2011); (Rodell M. et al.) Emerging trends in global freshwater availability (2018); AQUASTAT Database (2010-2018), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
By Gurman Bhatia. Additional work by Manas Sharma and Simon Scarr. Editing by Rajendra Jadhav. | REUTERS GRAPHICS