Feature story
All over the world, groundwater is becoming increasingly polluted and overused. In some regions, the situation is critical with groundwater tables declining rapidly. In India, for example, more than 20 million borewells tap into underground water reserves. Ninety percent of this water is used in agriculture, making possible the water-intensive cultivation of rice, wheat and sugarcane. This comes at a high cost: a lot of the shallower wells have fallen dry already. Experts warn that dwindling groundwater could threaten India’s food security in the future.
Over-exploitation is not the only problem. “Human development is disrupting groundwater recharge,” says Prof. Dr Mathew Koshy Punnackadu, environmental scientist, writer, and activist from the Church of South India. “We are facing rampant deforestation, intensive agricultural activities in the water catchment area, sand mining from the rivers, the loss of riparian vegetation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The impact on groundwater recharge is huge.”
Members of WCC-EWN warn of similar developments all over the world. The Brazilian Catholic Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra) reports that huge monocultures have already replaced half of the natural vegetation of the Cerrado, which is not only one of the biggest and most biodiverse savannas of the world but is also key for “storing” water in the rainy season and later releasing it into the groundwater and rivers.
As a result, groundwater and river tables have been falling for years. Springs and canals, which many of the traditional Cerrado small farmers use to irrigate their land in the dry season, are drying up. Fishers can no longer survive from their work because fish stocks in rivers have declined. “The poor suffer while the rich get richer from destroying the Cerrado and Brazil’s water supplies,” says Elias Wolff, Brazilian pastor and member of the EWN’s International Reference group.
In India and in Brazil, as well as in many other countries, a large part of what is being produced using groundwater is destined for export. “Those of us living in the industrialized countries need to be aware that our use of water, especially the ‘virtual’ water which is used to produce our food and other goods, has direct consequences for the lives of people in the Global South,” highlights Dr Ingrid Jacobsen from Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World) in Germany.
“Striking examples for this are the cultivation of soy for our meat and the mining of lithium for our electric car motors," she adds. Partners of Brot für die Welt report from the border regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, where more than 60 percent of the world's lithium deposits are found, about the threat to their livelihoods: because lithium mining is extremely water-intensive, the groundwater level is sinking, adjacent rivers and vegetation are drying up.
At the same time, groundwater overuse and pollution is a serious challenge in many industrialized countries, too. In Germany, for example, the pollution of groundwater from pesticides and fertilizers is a serious concern, despite comparatively strong environmental regulations and controls, says Dr Jacobsen.
Prof. Susan Smith, member of the EWN’s International Reference group from the USA, tells us that over the past few decades California farmers have turned increasingly to groundwater to irrigate their crops during the growing season, withdrawing enormous quantities of water to sustain water-thirsty monocrops like pasture, alfalfa, almonds, and fruit. “In some places so much water has been withdrawn that aquifers are collapsing and the land has sunken a dozen feet or more.” She is worried that regulation attempting to respond to the crisis “is far too little too late.”
“The pressure on groundwater is bound to increase globally,” comments Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the WCC-EWN. “In many countries, including my home country India, people do not need to obtain permission to drill a borewell to extract water. People think they ‘own’ the groundwater in their land.” He adds that “with unbridled extraction of groundwater in the absence of strict regulations, this precious but finite resource may run out sooner than later.”
“In Bangladesh we are very successfully implementing rainwater harvesting, which helps to lessen the considerable dependence on groundwater resources,” shares Rev. David Das, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh. “Efforts like these have to be further promoted urgently,” he adds, as groundwater levels in all major cities of the country and in 70% of the irrigated areas are falling.
Reflecting on California groundwater abuse (WCC blog, 24 February 2022)
