Scientists raise alarm as rural water supply goes from depths to debt

The city of Bengaluru and its surrounding peri-urban areas have been grappling with severe groundwater depletion, driven primarily by over-extraction. Yet, even as water sources are running dry, administrative focus remains largely on technical and financial fixes — laying pipelines, ensuring capital investment — rather than on effective water resource management. This has led to the near-complete neglect of efforts to sustainably manage water sources.

A new research paper turns attention to these on-the-ground realities, raising critical questions: What is the actual extent of groundwater depletion and how is it impacting rural water supply systems? What are the primary drivers of this depletion? And what are the additional financial burdens involved in finding new sources for water supply?

The researchers analysed long-term data from two gram panchayats, Aralumallige and Doddathumakuru, in the upper Arkavathy watershed near Bengaluru. Their findings confirm that groundwater depletion in this hard rock aquifer region is a severe and growing concern, driven largely by agricultural water abstraction. Notably, the study addresses a common misconception, highlighting that domestic use accounts for just 10% of freshwater consumption, while agriculture uses around 70%, and industrial and commercial uses account for about 20%.

While the researchers suggest that shifting to more water-efficient crops could help address over-extraction, the deeper issue lies in how water resources are managed, says Lakshmikantha N.R., a Ph.D. student at Bengaluru-based research organisation ATREE and part of  a research and innovation centre, WELL Labs. “In these regions, over 85% of drinking water comes from groundwater. But most drinking water programmes — like many WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) initiatives — focus on infrastructure and finance. Since our domestic water supply depends so heavily on groundwater, we should pay more attention to how the source itself is functioning,” he says.

This study aims to fill that gap, particularly in the context of the government’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), an initiative to provide piped drinking water to every Indian household by 2024.

Drilling deeper is no solution

In hard rock terrains, drilling deeper borewells does not necessarily yield more water. “The most accessible water is available at shallower depths. It’s the same water that oozes through fractures and fissures lower down,” Lakshmikantha explains. “About 80% of the water being extracted is actually replenished water. Earlier, open wells tapped the upper 80-100 feet, which are more porous and yield more water. Now, due to competition, the same volume of water is being extracted from depths of 800 or 1000 feet.” He adds, “It’s like moving your bucket deeper just to get the same water — and to keep it away from your neighbour. But the deeper you go, the more you pay for electricity. And because electricity is subsidised, the farmer doesn’t feel the true cost.”

Rural water supply systems are being forced to constantly adapt to the falling water table. As old wells run dry, gram panchayats must abandon them and drill deeper, more expensive borewells. As borewells are drilled deeper, the power required to pump water increases significantly. With electricity often provided free to farmers, local administrative units bear the financial burden of this over-extraction, pushing them to severe “electricity debts”. These critical linkages between groundwater depth, pumping costs, and public expenditure are largely absent from mainstream discussions on water supply and management.

T.V. Ramachandra, a scientist at the Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, says the study explores causal factors of acute water shortage India has been facing,  including limited freshwater resources, rising demand, and over-extraction of groundwater. “The study provides valuable insights into sustaining water through groundwater recharge and also implications of irrational decisions to provide free electricity, etc,” he says.

He points to a study on watershed management in the four river basins in the Western Ghats spanning 36 months which revealed that watershed management played a crucial role in sustaining water, evident from water availability throughout a year in the watershed dominated by native vegetation compared to degraded watersheds with vegetation cover less than 30%, having water for four to six months. “Moreover, native vegetation watersheds facilitate groundwater recharge evident from the infiltration of 60 to 65% of precipitation, which aids in ensuring water availability during the post-monsoon period. This emphasises the need to maintain porous landscapes (with vegetation cover and surface waterbodies) to ensure groundwater recharge,” he adds.

Save our sources

However, current rural drinking water programmes focus primarily on asset creation, rather than on aquifer management or regulating water demand in agriculture. The authors argue that India’s rural water policy must move beyond short-term replacement financing to adopt a more integrated aquifer governance model. This includes metering agricultural pumps, incentivising groundwater recharge, and aligning drinking water entitlements with sustainable yields. Without such reforms, public drinking water schemes risk remaining locked in an expensive cycle of deeper drilling and rising debt.

“When someone over-extracts — taking more water than is annually replenished — they should be discouraged,” says Lakshmikantha. “But many government schemes such as Sujala focus only on recharge. The logic is: you’re extracting too much, so we’ll just try to recharge more so you can continue your behaviour. That’s problematic.”

He adds that recharge programmes also raise issues of equity. “They mainly benefit borewell-owning farmers. Rainfed farmers who don’t have borewells don’t benefit directly.”

“If the government calculates these electricity costs and uses the savings to pay farmers who limit their borewell depth, say, to less than 500 feet, it could encourage more sustainable practices. Farmers would help restore the water table, and the government would save on power subsidies,” he suggests as a remedy. Researchers also suggest incentivising ecological farming practices and ecosystem services to encourage farmers to limit borewell depth. Policies could also establish clear extraction limits: “You can’t drill deeper than a certain level.”

Read more: Government report highlights groundwater contamination across India

Banner image: Experts say that the government must adopt policies to encourage more sustainable practices. Farmers can help restore the water table through ecological farming practices. Policies could also establish clear extraction limits. Image by Lakshmikantha N.R.