Here is a link to a fascinating article in the Economist about India’s increasing problems with supplying its roughly 1.1 billion people with water for drinking and agriculture. An immediate problem stems from the fact that the monsoon season this year has provided the most meager rainfall in decades. Drought has touched almost half of India’s 604 districts.
The article suggests that climate change may be having an effect. Droughts seem to be coming more frequently, and it is predicted that the monsoon rains will become even less predictable and more contracted. Moreover, glaciers in the Himalayas are melting. This threatens to drastically reduce the summertime water flow for India’s three greatest rivers — the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra.
In addition, there are many problems stemming from mismanagement of the water that is available, such as farmers in some areas pumping water from underground aquifers at a far greater rate than can be sustained. Hopefully, the country can find solutions in the years to come.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14401149
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