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Economic Growth and Challenge: India

Water availability and water stress

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 3 Section B

Overview

Why groundwater levels are falling in Punjab and Haryana, indus Waters Treaty and major interstate water dispute in India.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

How much fresh water is available per person in India, and how has that changed?

Key term

Why is India's water supply so uneven through the year?

Evaluation

How important is groundwater to India?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How much fresh water is available per person in India, and how has that changed?

    Model answer

    Per capita availability fell from about 5,200 m³ in 1951 to under 1,500 m³ by the early 2020s. A figure below 1,700 m³ counts as water stress.

  2. 2

    Why is India's water supply so uneven through the year?

    Model answer

    Roughly three-quarters of India's rainfall arrives in the four monsoon months. Rivers and reservoirs then fall steeply through the long dry season.

  3. 3

    How important is groundwater to India?

    Model answer

    Groundwater supplied roughly 60% of India's irrigation and most of its drinking water in the early 2020s. India pumps more groundwater than any other country.

  4. 4

    Explain why groundwater levels are falling in Punjab and Haryana.

    Model answer

    Free or heavily subsidised electricity lets farmers pump tube wells without limit. Water-hungry paddy rice grown in a dry region draws the water table down by up to a metre a year.

  5. 5

    Contrast the water security of the Ganges basin with that of peninsular India.

    Model answer

    The Ganges basin is fed by Himalayan snowmelt and stays perennial through the dry season. Peninsular rivers are rain-fed and their flow can almost cease before the monsoon.

  6. 6

    What is the Indus Waters Treaty?

    Model answer

    The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 divides the Indus system between India and Pakistan. India took the three eastern rivers and Pakistan the three western ones. India has held the treaty in abeyance since April 2025.

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