India global leader in underground water extraction

India is the global leader in extraction of underground water, more than double of the two big countries – United States and China, thus pushing its citizens towards impending water crises, a United Nations report released recently has said.

Updated on: Oct 4, 2012, 20:45:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India is the global leader in extraction of underground water, more than double of the two big countries – United States and China, thus pushing its citizens towards impending water crises, a United Nations report released recently has said.

India in 2010 extracted around 251 cubic kms of water as compared to 112 each for China and United States from around 30 million unregulated groundwater structures in the country.

The huge jump in underground water extraction has taken place in the last two decades.

The United Nations World Water Report said that India extracted about 140 cubic kms of groundwater in 1990, equivalent to US level.

But, since India initiated economic reforms in 1991 there has been a sudden jump in demand for ground water. The only consolation has been it has slightly slowed down in the last few years.

Underground water extraction over decades

India

USA

China

1950 : 20 cubic km
1970 : 45 cubic km
1990 : 140 cubic km
2010 : 251 cubic km

1950 : 50 cubic km
1970 : 75 cubic km
1990 : 140 cubic km
2010 : 112 cubic km

1950 : 15 cubic km
1970 : 30 cubic km
1990 : 85 cubic km
2010 :112 cubic km

“The current regime of power subsidies for agriculture has had a major role to play in deteriorating water tables in most parts of India,” says an internal document of the Planning Commission in emerging water crises.

Around 80% of extraction of ground water is for agriculture purpose and of the total new irrigation facilities, 84% is dependent on underground water.

Many of the underground water aquifers are highly contaminated in many regions in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh because of high use of fertilizers. “Around 60% of all districts in India have problems related to either the quantitative availability or quality of water,” said the panel’s report.

A NASA report showed that during 2002 and 2008 India lost about 109 cubic km of water leading to a decline in water table to the extent of 0.33 meters per annum. “About 28% of the underground water blocks showed high levels of ground water use,” the UN report said. The NASA report had shown that north-west India had fastest underground water depletion rate.

Among the list of top 10 underground water extractors include India's two neighbours --- Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Around 72% of underground water extraction takes place in the top countries listed in the UN report.

Top 10 underground water extractors

Country

Extraction (cubic km/per year)

India

251

China

112

United States

112

Pakistan

Iran

Bangladesh

Mexico

Saudi Arabia

Indonesia

Italy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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