faster than it can be replaced by natural processes. This process is not unique to India and represents a major danger to the ability of the world's peoples to support themselves with agriculture as it is practiced now and also to maintaining cities and settlements in arid areas. Ways MUST be found to reduce water wastage and to produce and distribute clean, desalinated water cheaply.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090812143938.htmSatellites Unlock Secret To Northern India's Vanishing WaterScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2009) — Using satellite data, UC Irvine and NASA hydrologists have found that groundwater beneath northern India has been receding by as much as 1 foot per year over the past decade – and they believe human consumption is almost entirely to blame.
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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, UCI 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, lead author of the study and former doctoral student of Famiglietti's at the University of Texas at Austin.
Study results will be published online Aug. 12 in the journal
Nature.
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The map shows groundwater changes in India during 2002-08, with losses in red and gains in blue, based on GRACE satellite observations. The estimated rate of depletion of groundwater in northwestern India is 4.0 centimeters of water per year, equivalent to a water table decline of 33 centimeters per year. Increases in groundwater in southern India are due to recent above-average rainfall, whereas rain in northwestern India was close to normal during the study period. (Credit: I. Velicogna/UC Irvine) Water is tomorrow's oil in the sense that it is an ever more precious and limited resource that is not evenly distributed. Indeed, it is far MORE precious than oil, because it is essential to life. When one country occupies or otherwise seeks to dominate another, it is always important to evaluate what part is being played by the battle for water rights. I first posted this in General Discussion (
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6352933 ), but since it is sinking like a stone to invisibility in GD, I decided to repost in this forum. Be sure to see the post in that thead about the melting of the glaciers that feed the Ganges:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6352933&mesg_id=6353003