The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water. What Happens If We Do?

"Youths walk along a dry riverbed on the banks of the river Ganges in Prayagraj, India, on October 14, 2025. Sanjay Kanojia / NurPhoto via Getty Images India is the thirstiest user of groundwater in the world, sucking up more of this valuable resource than both the U.S. and China combined. Indeed, the country relies on groundwater (like lakes and rivers) to keep its crops irrigated, its industries running, and its people quenched."

"This means way more water is pumped out than is going back in. In some rural villages, drinking water wells are running dry, requiring the government to truck in water. Over the past few years, around 80 percent of the country's marginal farmers have suffered crop failures in large part because of depleted groundwater and other climate-related impacts, while nearly 43 percent of farmers saw at least half their standing crops lost."

India depends heavily on groundwater for irrigation, industry, and drinking supply, with some rural communities drawing as much as 85 percent of drinking water from underground sources. Groundwater depletion in India is part of broader global terrestrial water loss affecting nearly 6 billion people across more than 101 countries over 22 years. In continental regions without glaciers, groundwater loss accounts for roughly 68 percent of freshwater declines. Rapid expansion of irrigation wells has over-exploited aquifers, causing wells to run dry, forcing water trucking, and contributing to large-scale crop failures among marginal farmers.

Read at Truthout