Is India’s thirst for fresh water causing ocean levels to rise? Already, experts warn that the backwaters of Kerala and the deltas of the Ganga, Krishna, Godavari, Cauvery and Mahanadi on the east coast are being threatened by rising sea levels.
A recent NASA study confirmed that water tables in North India were declining at the rate of one foot per year. The ministry of water resources has admitted that 109 cubic km of water was lost from the aquifers along the Indus river alone.
Water expert Prof. Vikram Soni calculates that in the last 30 years, “India has lost close to 1,000 trillion tonnes of groundwater which would have raised sea levels by one centimetre.” Thirty per cent of the world’s groundwater is being withdrawn from India alone, he says.
Overall, in the past five decades, several trillion tonnes of groundwater has found its way into the ocean which is more than the melting of Greenland and Antarctica.
The study showed that estimated inundation areas are 4.2 sq km and 42.5 sq km if the sea level rise is 1 metre and 2 metre around Nagapattinam.
Experts express grave concern for climate change, concluding that even if the climate were to be stabilised, sea levels would rise up to 10 metres or more if all the world’s groundwater was pumped out.