World Bank Rings Alarm On Depleting Groundwater
With the growing number of aquifers (underjordiske vandreserver) in India reaching unsustainable levels of exploitation, about 60 percent of them will be in a critical condition within 20 years if the current trend continues.
This is the conclusion of a World Bank report released on Friday, “Deep Wells and Prudence: Towards Pragmatic Action for addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India”.
The exploitation will have serious implications on the sustenance of agriculture, long-term food security, livelihoods and economic growth. Over a quarter of the countrys harvest is estimated to be at risk.
Even though there is a major depen-dence of many sectors on ground-water and it is fa-cing a critical threat of overexploitation, there is little investment in its management.
This inaction has arisen mainly be-cause the solutions often proposed for groundwater management are very controversial, including ‘command-and-control’ regulation of wells and curbing the supply of free or cheap power for groundwater irrigation.
– Farmers’ wasteful use of water is unsustainable in a country with a fast-growing population and rapidly industrializing economy, says India’s Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Many farmers flood their crops, using more water than they need to, and often choose water-intensive crops in areas with low rainfall. Bansal believes pricing water to reflect its scarcity would deter waste and force farmers to take ‘the last drop to the last mile.’
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
