We have no clear idea about how much ground water storage capacity currently exists in the country. Yes, that is true. At a time when at least 10 out of the 29 states in India have declared a drought and all eyes are on the monsoon rains to bring relief, it is interesting to see that India is the world’s biggest user of ground water. Both in terms of quantity and number of users. Water activists say thirty million Indians use about 230 billion cubic meters of ground water annually, for drinking and in irrigation. One would think a country so dependent on ground water would not only take abundant care of its ground water sources and their replenishment, but also have a fair idea of how much ground water there is. But data is one sore point in India’s water wars.
Himanshu Thakkar, Coordinator with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, says India still does not have an idea of its current ground water storage capacity because we have not invested time or resources in mapping ground water sources. He says more than 85 percent of rural water supply, about 55 percent urban and about 60 percent industrial water supply comes from our ground water sources. And that 30 percent of all ground water units in India now come under the "over exploited" category. This refers to units where the annual ground water extraction exceeds the net annual ground water availability.
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