Mumbai, Jan 14: India has more than 2.19 crore wells -- dug-wells as well as shallow, medium and deep tubewells -- that suck out massive quantities of precious groundwater from the bowels of the earth. And, worryingly, only a modest amount of this water gets re-charged.

Of these, Maharashtra has more than 3.2 million wells comprising 27,49,088 dug-wells, 131,100 shallow tube-wells, 174,194 medium tube-wells and 179,583 deep tube-wells.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list with over 3.9 million wells of all types, but pleasantly, Sikkim and Manipur are the only states that have no wells of any kind, while Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh have no dug-wells, though they have borewells, as per the Centre’s official data presented to parliament (December 2023).

According to a Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) report, nearly 70 per cent of the surface water in India is considered ‘unfit for consumption’, and only a small portion of almost 40 million litres of waste-water that is dumped into rivers and other fresh-water bodies daily in the country is adequately treated to prevent it from degrading the water quality.

The details are even more shocking at the global level, where more than 80 per cent of the world’s waste-water gets released into nature without being treated or recycled, even as the threat of global warming and its implications loom heavily over the planet.

Around 200 crore (2 billion) people worldwide use drinking matter contaminated with fecal matter and other pollutants that pose massive health hazards, many with fatal consequences.

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Around 45 crore (450 million) children in the world live in high or extremely high water vulnerability, and the UN has forecast that around 70 crore (700 million) could be displaced due to water scarcity by 2030.

(IANS inputs)

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