Leading hydrogeology scientist explains how India’s dependence on groundwater could lead to a crisis if left unchecked
Mumbai: Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material, supplying and sustaining a range of human activity. Yet, because it is invisible and it’s supply often taken for granted, it is often inadequately acknowledged in policy and debates about the preservation of groundwater commons and aquifers. At best, it is usually shrouded in inaccessible scientific terminology.
In the third part of its Groundwater Lecture Series, the Columbia Global Centers in Mumbai recently hosted Himanshu Kulkarni, Founder Trustee and Executive Director of Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM). One of India’s leading scientists on hydrogeology and an advocate for groundwater management and governance, Dr. Kulkarni attempted to break down the numbers behind India’s dependence on groundwater and why it could lead to a crisis if left unchecked.