Groundwater Depletion in Punjab: From Water Crisis to Rural Inequality

24 Sep 2026

Tags: Environment   Conservation   Environmental degradation

Source: The Hindu

Context: Punjab’s groundwater extraction has reached 152%, making groundwater depletion both an environmental and socio-economic challenge.

• The crisis is increasingly affecting small and marginal farmers, who lack the capital needed to access deeper groundwater.

Groundwater Stress in Punjab

• According to the 2025–26 Dynamic Groundwater Assessment, Punjab’s groundwater extraction rate stands at 152%.
• Although interventions have reduced the number of over-exploited blocks by five across the last two assessments, 72% of Punjab’s 153 blocks remain in the ‘red zone’ — the highest proportion among States.
• Irrigation for rice and wheat is the principal consumer, requiring nearly 25 billion cubic metres of groundwater annually.
• The share of observation wells recording groundwater levels below 40 metres in the post-monsoon period increased by two percentage points between 2022 and 2025.

Why Punjab Became Dependent on Groundwater

• The push for food security led to the concentration of agriculture around the rice-wheat cropping system, supported by assured procurement, subsidised electricity and easy access to groundwater.
• These incentives reduced the risks associated with high-yielding varieties, intensive irrigation, fertiliser use and mechanisation, making rice and wheat more attractive than alternative crops.
• Farmers have also remained reluctant to diversify because of uncertainties regarding storage facilities, prices, processing infrastructure and supply chains for alternative crops.

Groundwater Depletion and Rural Inequality

• A recent Economic and Political Weekly study found that marginal farmers use groundwater more efficiently, but wealthier farmers are better positioned to access deeper water tables and extract larger quantities.
• As groundwater levels decline, farmers unable to finance deeper or additional tube wells increasingly have to purchase water from larger landowners.
• This creates unregulated dependencies and transfers wealth from smaller farmers to larger landowners.
• A study published in Discover Sustainability found that in Sangrur and Barnala, larger farms earned higher returns but had lower groundwater productivity in paddy cultivation than smaller farms.
• Thus, groundwater depletion increases the capital cost of irrigation, systematically favouring farmers with better access to finance.

Existing Government Interventions

• State governments have introduced multiple measures to reduce groundwater demand, but the scale of extraction continues to outweigh efficiency gains.
• The ‘Pani Bachao, Paisa Kamao’ scheme provides farmers with cash incentives for every unused kilowatt-hour of electricity below a specified consumption threshold, encouraging them to reduce groundwater pumping.
• However, the scheme has witnessed low enrolment, limiting its overall impact.

Way Forward

• Groundwater management should simultaneously protect farm incomes and irrigation access while making additional groundwater extraction increasingly costly.
• A portion of the electricity subsidy expenditure could be redirected towards direct income support for smallholder farmers, rather than primarily subsidising electricity consumption.
• The State can promote collectivisation of irrigation infrastructure, enabling small farmers to share the cost of irrigation assets.
• Financial and institutional support should facilitate crop diversification, particularly by addressing storage, procurement, processing and supply-chain constraints.
• Welfare benefits should follow the actual cultivator, including tenants, rather than being linked primarily to land or pump ownership.
• Such an approach can subsidise equitable access to irrigation instead of indirectly subsidising continued groundwater extraction.

Conclusion: Punjab’s groundwater crisis is no longer merely an environmental concern; it is also reshaping rural economic relations. Sustainable water management must therefore combine aquifer conservation, crop diversification and equitable irrigation access.

 

Important Concept: Groundwater Productivity Groundwater productivity refers broadly to the economic or agricultural output generated per unit of groundwater used. Higher farm income does not necessarily indicate efficient water use; larger farms may generate greater absolute returns while using groundwater less productively.