Over 1,000 experts call for global action on 'depleting' groundwater

Nearly 1,100 scientists, practitioners and experts in groundwater and related fields from 92 countries have called on the governments and nongovernmental agencies to "act now" to ensure global groundwater sustainability.

In a statement, the group noted that groundwater represents 99 per cent of the Earth's freshwater.

This makes it critical for supplying drinking water, ensuring food security, adapting to climate variability, supporting biodiversity, sustaining surface water bodies and meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"Unfortunately, in many regions, groundwater is increasingly depleted or polluted, hampering socio-economic development and threatening water and food supplies and ecosystems," according to the statement.

"At the same time, advances in research, technology and policy offer innovative solutions. There is a unique, but shrinking window of opportunity to act -- and now is the time for action to ensure groundwater continues to benefit society today and in the future," it said.

Abhijit Mukherjee, who is a part of the global scientist group and an Associate professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur told PTI "we, in India, are abstracting the largest volume of groundwater in human history and are rapidly depleting a relatively non-renewable natural resource that is essential for our survival."