Mapping Groundwater Depletion
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
India Plans to Spend $331 Million Mapping its Aquifers by March 2017 as Groundwater Depletion
Indiaplans to spend 20.5 billion rupees ($331 million) mapping its aquifers by March 2017 as groundwater depletion in the world's second-most populated nation continues at unsustainably high rates.
At least 85 percent of India's villages and half of its cities rely on wells for water. Farming accounts for about 90 percent of the water withdrawals in India as irrigated acreage has almost tripled since 1950.
The country is collecting aquifer data at six sites across five states, junior water ministerSanwarlal Jatsaid today. The average available water each year amounts to 1,869 billion cubic meters, he said. Of this, only 690 billion cubic meters of surface water and 433 billion cubic meters of replenishable groundwater can actually be used, the minister said, responding to questions in the lower house of Parliament.
India has lost groundwater equal to more than twice the capacity ofLake Mead, the biggest U.S. reservoir, as overuse from 2002-2008 and lack of replenishment cut supplies, a U.S. National Aeronautical and Space Agency study showed.
About a fifth of water used globally comes from under the ground, according to theStockholm International Water Institute. Withdrawals are predicted to increase 50 percent by 2025 indeveloping countriesand 18 percent in developed countries as populations grow and to cope with industrial and agricultural demand, according to the policy group.
Source: Bloomberg
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