India is in the middle of the worst water crisis, with groundwater getting depleted at unsustainable rates. The latest United Nations report indicates that India is heading the Saudi Arabia way in terms of the groundwater scenario. The enveloping crisis, with serious implications for public health and the economy, needs urgent attention. The augmentation of watersheds that can store more groundwater for agricultural use and other purposes and strict enforcement of pollution control measures are the two key areas that require urgent attention. According to the UN’s ‘Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023,’ India is the largest user of groundwater globally, extracting more water than the combined usage of the United States and China. The entire northwestern region is predicted to experience critically low groundwater availability by 2025. Significantly, the north-western region, including Punjab and Haryana, plays a crucial role in the nation’s food production, accounting for 50% of the country’s rice supply and 85% of its wheat stocks.
This region, ironically, is facing critically low groundwater availability, with 78% of wells in Punjab considered overexploited. Some areas in the Indo-Gangetic basin have already passed the groundwater depletion tipping point. Environmental tipping points are critical thresholds in the Earth’s systems, beyond which abrupt and often irreversible changes occur. They lead to profound and catastrophic shifts in ecosystems, climate patterns and the overall environment. Groundwater depletion is one of the six environmental tipping points that the UN body – United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) – has warned about.