Groundwater Crisis in Punjab: What Happens When Tube Wells Go Dry?
Dear Reader,
Imagine waking up to a sensational headline about a village running out of groundwater resources.
Oh, wait! It’s happened before—You can read this story here.
While you may learn about the initial crisis, what often gets overlooked is what happens next when a tube well runs dry in any village.
This piece aims to explore just that: the consequences and challenges faced by villagers when a tube well goes dry.
For the housekeeping, let’s refresh our understanding of the terms we are going to use in this piece.
Groundwater is the water stored below the ground in natural aquifers
Aquifers are hollow spaces below ground which store a large amount of water
Groundwater level or table is the point at which you can get water upon drilling from above the ground
Now that we’ve understood the basics, let’s look at the broader picture. India, a country of more than 1.4 billion people, uses groundwater for domestic & industrial purposes but largely for irrigation.
The Central Groundwater Board of India monitors water levels across India for four times a year through its network of 25,000 monitoring stations.
It then tells us about where and at what rate the groundwater levels are falling and rising in India. This is how we get to know, which state is rather fast in losing its groundwater level than the others.
What’s happening now?
The Ministry of Jal Shakti has recently shared the groundwater usage data for 10 north Indian states while responding to a question (Session-265, Q-1516) in Rajya Sabha.
According to which -
Out of 10 states, 4 have witnessed the fall in one out of every two tube wells.
Punjab leads with 7 out of 10 tube wells witnessing a decline, while Bihar follows with 6 out of 10 tube wells experiencing a drop.
23% of the tube wells in Punjab have seen a fall of more than 4 metres
17% of the tube wells in Punjab have witnessed a fall of 2 to 4 metres
This fall in groundwater has been witnessed between 2003 to 2022. These figures tell us how fast the groundwater is depleting in Punjab.
Some districts have even witnessed a fall of about one metre annually from 1998 to 2018. These figures are alarming because Punjab’s rural economy relies heavily on groundwater resources.
But what happens when these tube wells go dry? how do they impact the farmers who own such tube wells?
In simpler words, I am trying to explore how it impacts the people who are facing the issue of groundwater depletion at such a fast rate.
What happens when tube wells go dry?
The impact of tube wells going dry depends on their role in the rural economy. In Punjab, they play a huge role in the growth and fall of agricultural produce.
Punjab’s strength, as a state, lies in its ability to produce high amounts of paddy and wheat despite being one of the smallest states in India and, it does that by pumping out huge amounts of groundwater. The usage of tube well has grown only over the years.
Just in three decades, Punjab has registered a growth of 85% in tube wells. It has gone up because farms need water to produce crops and in the absence of enough canal water, the groundwater comes in handy.
Hence, it’s quite easy to understand the rise of 30% in tube well irrigation from 2233,000 hectares to 2894,000 hectares within these three decades.
However, what happens in a village or to farmers when their wells go dry is still an under-researched area of groundwater crisis.
Approaching Zero-Day
To illustrate the human impact of groundwater depletion, let's consider a hypothetical scenario involving a farmer named Manjeet Singh.
On a fine Monday morning, Manjeet Singh goes to his field, switches on the tube well and readies himself to irrigate his paddy field, only to find that the tube well is not pumping out enough water.
This is like approaching the zero-day for Manjeet as he would have two options - dig a deeper hole or buy water from his fellow neighbour.
The cost of installing a new tube well or digging it deeper depends on the groundwater level of the concerned area. If the water is at three to ten metres below the ground then a centrifugal pump can be used which costs around seven to ten thousand. (Agarwal et al.,2020)
However, if the water level has dropped below 10 metres then farmers would have to invest in a submersible pump which is available from 16000 rupees. The cost of installing a new pump would include labour costs, drilling costs, pipes etc. Now, this isn’t economical, is it?
In a study done by Punjab Agriculture University, this cost has been estimated to be 80,000 rupees and it only goes up as you dig deeper and use a stronger submersible pump set.
Let’s suppose, Manjeet Singh decides to dig his tube well deeper just to ensure the accessibility of water for the next decade. He creates a 250 to 350 feet deep well in a village where his fellow farmers use tube wells with just 100 feet of depth.
How would it impact the others? Well, sooner or later the tube wells of Manjeet’s neighbours are also going to go dry. Now, what would they do?
Either they would buy water from Manjeet Singh on an hourly basis to irrigate their fields or they too would dig deeper tube wells one by one.
It would cost them a good sum of money like it did to Manjeet Singh if they go with a new & a stronger pump.
They may have this much extra cash but if not, then they would have to borrow money at 12-15% of interest from bank or some local money lender.
The vicious cycle
This begins a vicious cycle, where farmers like Manjeet Singh, either re-drill their wells or purchase water from others. It dramatically shifts the rural power dynamics, favouring farmers with larger landholdings while disadvantaging small and marginal farmers.
As the cost of production rises, small farmers are increasingly trapped in debt.
This burden is especially severe when you consider that the average monthly income of farmers in Punjab is ₹26,701, according to the Situation Assessment Survey -2019 (SAS) of Agricultural Households.
The economic strain deepens as the expense of re-drilling or purchasing water outpaces earnings, perpetuating inequality.
As per the study done by Dr Anandita Sarkar, “the cost of natural resource depletion is disproportionately borne by the resource-poor farmers because they are unable to invest in technology, and hence, remain excluded from its beneficial ambit. The inequality in the net returns, especially in the completely groundwater-dependent agricultural economy, becomes inevitable with groundwater depletion for two reasons. First, the non-tube well-owning households have to buy water for irrigation which increases their cost, and second, the large tube well-owning households get water for free as the running cost of tube wells is marginally zero on account of the supply of free electricity to agriculture.”
In regions where both, canal and groundwater irrigation are available, farmers have some resilience when groundwater resources are depleted. However, for farmers who are entirely dependent on groundwater, the risk is profound; loss of livelihood, deepening debt, and an eventual economic collapse.
Groundwater depletion in Punjab and other parts of India is not just an environmental crisis—it's a socio-economic crisis. If left unchecked, the consequences will extend far beyond individual farmers, disrupting the entire rural fabric.
As we look at the future, one question remains: How long can this cycle continue before the tube wells run dry, both figuratively and literally?
For more on this topic, below I’ve provided links to the stories that share real-life accounts of farmers who’ve faced these challenges head-on.
By subscribing to my newsletter, you’ll stay informed about the most pressing issues, like groundwater conservation, that affect not only farmers but the entire country. Together, we can hold leaders accountable, support sustainable practices, and ensure that India doesn’t run dry. Stay with us. Be part of the conversation that saves our most vital resource—water.
Further Readings:
The bodies of evidence in Punjab
India seeks to arrest its alarming decline in groundwater
Hope runs dry as groundwater sources in Punjab drop to alarming levels
Groundwater exploitation is silently sinking the ground beneath India’s feet
Writing on the wall: Groundwater exploitation is triggering subsidence in Indo-Gangetic plain
Punjab Farmers Struggle Amidst Plummeting Groundwater Levels