Northern India's groundwater reserves vanishing

University of California, Irvine: Hydrologists from NASA and Univ. of Calif., Irvine, now say that groundwater beneath northern India has been receding by as much as one foot per year over the past decade, and that human consumption is almost entirely to blame. If the process is not reversed, they say, consequences include a collapse of agricultural output, severe shortages of potable water, conflict and suffering for 114 million people of the region.

Study results have been derived from data from twin satellites called GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment).

According to study results, more than 109 cubic kilometers (26 cubic miles) of groundwater disappeared from the region's aquifers between 2002 and 2008 – double the capacity of India's largest surface-water reservoir, the Upper Wainganga, and triple that of Lake Mead, the largest manmade reservoir in the US.

People are pumping northern India's underground water, mostly to irrigate cropland, faster than natural processes can replenish it, said Jay Famiglietti and Isabella Velicogna, UC-I Earth system scientists, and Matt Rodell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"If measures are not soon taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output, severe shortages of potable water, conflict and suffering," said Rodell.