600 million Indians depend on groundwater for drinking water. By 2025, many of us might be fighting over what’s left.

India is facing a severe groundwater depletion crisis, making it the world’s largest user of extractable underground water. We’re extracting water faster than nature can refill it. This isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s about survival. About food security. About whether your children will have water.

The numbers are alarming. But solutions exist. And you can be part of them.

Understanding the Scale of Groundwater Depletion in India.

Let’s start with the facts. The Ministry of Jal Shakti released the Dynamic Groundwater Resource Assessment Report 2025, and the numbers paint a clear picture.

Where We Stand Today

National groundwater status:

• Annual groundwater recharge: 448.52 billion cubic meters (BCM)
• Extractable resources: 407.75 BCM
• Current extraction: 247.22 BCM
• Stage of extraction: 60.63% of replenishable resources

On paper, 60% sounds manageable. But that’s the national average. Some regions are in severe crisis.

Assessment of groundwater units across India:

• 73.14% units classified as Safe (extraction below 70%)
• 10.8% units Overexploited (extraction above 100%)
• 3% units Critical (extraction between 90-100%)

There’s good news here—these numbers show improvement from previous years due to conservation efforts. But the crisis is far from over.

Agriculture: The Biggest User

According to government data, agriculture accounts for 87-90% of all groundwater extraction in India. That’s not a problem by itself—we need to grow food. The problem is where and how.

Water-intensive crops like paddy (rice) and sugarcane are being grown in regions that don’t have enough water. Punjab grows paddy. Rajasthan grows sugarcane. Both states are running out of groundwater.

Regional Hotspots: The Crisis Zones

Some states are extracting more groundwater than nature can replenish. Here’s the reality, state by state:

Extreme stress zones:

• Punjab: 156% extraction (extracting more than one and a half times what can be replenished)
• Haryana: 137% extraction
• Rajasthan: Severe stress in multiple districts
• Delhi: 92% extraction (approaching critical level)
• Uttar Pradesh: Critical in many blocks

High stress zones:

• Karnataka: 66.49% extraction (rising concern)
• Maharashtra: 51.79% extraction

What does 156% extraction mean? It means Punjab is borrowing heavily from its groundwater savings. Every year, the deficit grows. Eventually, the account goes empty.

How Did We Get Here?

Understanding the causes helps us find solutions.

The Green Revolution’s Unintended Legacy

In the 1960s and 70s, India faced food shortages. The Green Revolution solved that through high-yield crops and irrigation. Borewells became the answer to consistent water supply.

It worked. India became food self-sufficient. But we didn’t plan for sustainability. We kept extracting without thinking about recharge.

What worked 50 years ago isn’t working now.

Subsidized Electricity Equals Unlimited Pumping

Most agricultural states provide free or heavily subsidized electricity. Farmers pay nothing or very little to run their borewell pumps.

This policy encourages unlimited extraction. If pumping water costs nothing, why conserve? Pumps run day and night during the crop season. Nobody tracks how much is extracted.

Wrong Crops in Wrong Places

Punjab is semi-arid. It receives about 600-700mm rainfall annually. Yet it grows paddy rice, which needs 1,200-1,500mm of water.

Where does the extra water come from? Groundwater.

Maharashtra’s Marathwada region faces regular droughts. Yet it grows sugarcane, one of the most water-intensive crops.

Why? Because the government’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) makes these crops profitable. Farmers respond to economics, not hydrology.

Urbanization Without Recharge

Cities keep expanding. Roads, buildings, parking lots—everything gets paved. Rainwater that used to seep into the ground now flows into drains and out to the sea.

At the same time, every building drills a borewell. Every apartment complex, every mall, every office. All extracting from the same aquifer. No one putting water back.

Climate Change Adds Pressure

Monsoons are becoming erratic. Some years see floods. Other years face drought. The predictable rhythm that farmers depended on is gone.

Research indicates that groundwater depletion rates could triple by 2080 due to climate-driven changes in farming patterns.

Weak Enforcement of Regulations

Laws exist. The Central Ground Water Authority regulates extraction. States have their own rules. But implementation is weak.

Unregistered borewells continue to be drilled. No one monitors how much each borewell extracts. The regulations look good on paper but don’t translate to ground reality.

What Happens When Groundwater Runs Out?

This isn’t a distant future problem. It’s happening now. Let’s look at what groundwater depletion actually means.

Food Security at Risk

60% of India’s irrigation depends on groundwater. Punjab and Haryana grow 50% of India’s wheat and 40% of rice. Their groundwater is failing.

Studies project potential 20% crop loss in critical groundwater zones by 2025. That’s not just farmer income lost. That’s food shortage. That’s price spikes. That’s hunger.

Drinking Water Crisis

85% of rural India depends on groundwater for drinking water. Urban areas increasingly rely on borewells as municipal supply fails to meet demand.

Remember Chennai in 2019? Four major reservoirs ran completely dry. The city depended on water tankers for months. That was a preview of India’s water future.

Health Hazards

As water levels drop, pollution concentrates. Government testing reveals that 20% of groundwater samples are unsafe for drinking.

High fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis. Arsenic in groundwater leads to skin lesions and cancer. Nitrate contamination from fertilizers causes methemoglobinemia in infants.

The deeper we drill, the worse the water quality gets.

Land is Sinking

Excessive groundwater extraction causes land subsidence. The ground literally sinks.

Delhi and Bangalore are experiencing this. Buildings develop cracks. Roads buckle. Infrastructure gets damaged. In coastal areas, land subsidence allows seawater to intrude into freshwater aquifers, making them permanently unusable.

Economic Devastation

Twenty years ago, a 100-foot borewell cost ₹15,000. Today, borewells go 500-800 feet deep and cost ₹60,000 to ₹1,00,000.

Farmers take loans to drill borewells. The borewell fails in a few years. They take another loan to drill deeper. It’s a debt trap.

Some villages have been abandoned entirely because borewells failed and no alternative water source exists.

Social Tensions Rise

States fight over river water. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery. Maharashtra and Karnataka over Krishna.

Within states, cities and villages dispute water allocation. Farmers clash over irrigation water. Water scarcity leads to distress, migration, and social unrest.

Imagine your borewell running dry tomorrow. No shower, no cooking, no drinking water. For millions of Indians, this isn’t imagination. It’s reality.

What’s Being Done: Government Initiatives

The good news is that serious efforts are underway at the policy level.

Atal Bhujal Yojana

Launched in 2020, Atal Bhujal Yojana focuses on the seven most water-stressed states: Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

The program emphasizes community-led demand-side management. Instead of just increasing supply, it works on reducing extraction and improving recharge.

Results have been positive. The percentage of overexploited and critical assessment units has decreased from 23% to 19% in targeted areas.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan

This nationwide water conservation campaign has led to the construction of 1.21 crore rainwater harvesting structuresacross India.

The focus is on catching every drop of rain where it falls, creating recharge structures, and renovating traditional water bodies.

NAQUIM: National Aquifer Mapping

Understanding what’s underground helps target interventions better. The National Aquifer Mapping programscientifically maps India’s aquifer systems.

This helps identify which aquifers are most stressed, which can handle more extraction, and where recharge efforts will be most effective.

Regulatory Measures

The Central Ground Water Authority monitors extraction in critical and overexploited areas. Many cities now mandate rainwater harvesting for new buildings. Some states have started regulating borewell drilling.

These programs are helping. The 2025 assessment shows improvement in several areas. But the scale of the problem is massive. Government alone cannot solve this. Citizen action is essential.

What You Can Do: Individual Action Matters

Waiting for government action while your borewell dries up isn’t a plan. Here’s what you can do starting this monsoon.

Solution 1: Harvest Rainwater (The Most Practical Step)

Your roof collects thousands of liters of water every monsoon. Right now, it flows into drains and eventually to the sea. Instead, you can send it back underground to recharge your borewell.

How it works:

Install a rooftop rainwater filter that captures water from your roof, removes dust and debris, and directs clean water to recharge your borewell or a recharge pit.

The simple math:

A 1,500 square feet roof in an area with 800mm annual rainfall can harvest approximately 6,00,000 liters of water every year.

Average family water consumption: 150 liters per person per day × 4 people = 2,19,000 liters per year.

You’re putting back almost three times what you use. That’s not just sustainable—that’s regenerative.

Real impact at scale:

When thousands of homes in an area implement rainwater harvesting:

• The local water table stops falling
• Eventually, it starts rising
• Borewells become more productive
• Water quality improves
• The entire community benefits

Making it happen:

NeeRain‘s rooftop rainwater filters make this simple:

• Dual-stage filtration ensures only clean water reaches your aquifer
• Works on gravity—no electricity needed
• Minimal maintenance (clean the filter twice a year)
• One-time investment of ₹5,000-12,000 for most homes
• Your local plumber can install it in 2-3 hours

Over 10,000 homes using NeeRain systems have collectively recharged more than 150 billion liters since 2020. Every installation contributes to stabilizing the local groundwater situation.

For detailed guidance, read our article on how to recharge a borewell.

Solution 2: Reduce Your Water Consumption

Even small changes add up:

• Fix leaking taps and pipes (a dripping tap wastes 15 liters daily)
• Install water-efficient fixtures
• Use native plants in your garden that need less water
• Collect AC condensate water and RO reject water for plants
• Take shorter showers

Solution 3: Spread Awareness in Your Community

Individual action helps. Collective action transforms.

Talk to your neighbors about rainwater harvesting. If you live in an apartment complex, propose it to your society’s committee. Housing societies can implement rainwater harvesting at scale, benefiting all residents.

Share information. When people understand the crisis and the solution, they act.

Solution 4: Support Better Policies

Use your voice as a citizen:

• Advocate for mandatory rainwater harvesting in your city
• Support reforms that price groundwater extraction fairly
• Vote for leaders who prioritize water conservation
• Demand better implementation of existing regulations

A Movement, Not Just a Product

This is bigger than installing a filter. It’s about changing how we think about water.

For 50 years, we treated groundwater as unlimited. We drilled deeper when wells failed. We never thought about putting water back.

That mindset must change. Every home that harvests rainwater is making a deposit in the community water bank. Your recharge today helps your neighbor’s borewell tomorrow.

Think of it this way: when millions of Indian rooftops become recharge points, we’re not just saving our individual borewells. We’re restoring India’s aquifers. We’re securing water for the next generation.

The 2025 government assessment shows this is possible. Areas with concentrated rainwater harvesting efforts show improvement. The water table stabilizes. Borewells regain productivity.

It works. But it needs scale. It needs you.

The Choice Is Ours

We can keep drilling deeper until there’s nothing left. Or we can start putting water back.

The data is clear. We’re extracting unsustainably. 600 million Indians face water stress. The crisis is here.

Government programs are helping, but they need citizen participation. Every monsoon without rainwater harvesting is a wasted opportunity. Every roof that lets rainwater flow into drains is a missed chance to recharge the aquifer.

The solution exists. It’s affordable—₹5,000 to ₹12,000 for most homes. It’s proven—150 billion liters already recharged through NeeRain systems alone. It works—water tables stabilize in areas with good adoption.

Your roof will collect thousands of liters this monsoon. Will it flow into drains, or will it recharge your borewell?