Leading hydrogeology scientist explains how India’s dependence on groundwater could lead to a crisis if left unchecked
Mumbai: Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material, supplying and sustaining a range of human activity. Yet, because it is invisible and it’s supply often taken for granted, it is often inadequately acknowledged in policy and debates about the preservation of groundwater commons and aquifers. At best, it is usually shrouded in inaccessible scientific terminology.
In the third part of its Groundwater Lecture Series, the Columbia Global Centers in Mumbai recently hosted Himanshu Kulkarni, Founder Trustee and Executive Director of Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM). One of India’s leading scientists on hydrogeology and an advocate for groundwater management and governance, Dr. Kulkarni attempted to break down the numbers behind India’s dependence on groundwater and why it could lead to a crisis if left unchecked.
India, Dr. Kulkarni pointed out, is the country that extracts the most groundwater globally. “India is responsible for 25% of the global annual total of groundwater extracted. China and the US follow, but together they don’t account for as much as India extracts on its own.”
Steep rise
Referring to a 2005 study from the International Water Management Institute, he pointed out that India’s groundwater use went from about 7km³ in 1940 to about 270 km³ over the past decade. There was a particularly steep rise in the late 70s and 80s; while many would attribute that to the Green Revolution, Dr. Kulkarni says the numbers are evidence that there is a deeper story. “The Green Revolution was also linked with the building of big dams, which former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru called the temples of modern India. Yet, I think the real revolution that happened in agriculture was by our small and marginal farmers and happened parallel to what the government talked off.”
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