Peak Water? Water crisis looms in India as drilling depletes resources

… With 20 percent of the world’s population, India must meet its water needs with just five percent of the globe’s available supply that is dwindling each year, says Maggie Black, a British water expert and co-author of “Water, a Matter of Life and Health”.

Now some 70 percent of India’s irrigation water and 80 percent of its domestic water supplies come from groundwater rather than from surface water, according to the World Bank

In a report late last year, the Bank said that India has no proper water management system, its groundwater is disappearing and river bodies are turning into sewers.

“Estimates reveal that by 2020, India’s demand for water will exceed supply,” it said.

AFP