Depleted groundwater threatens food chain

Daniel Pepper
San Francisco Chronicle Foreign Service

Friday, May 9, 2008

Just before dusk on the central plain of northern Punjab state, Naresh Kumar, 22, crouches under a huge drill and sprinkles mustard oil, turmeric, raw sugar and various confections inside a 10-inch circle traced in rich soil.

Hands clasped and head bowed, he offers a short prayer to a Sufi saint and asks for a bountiful supply of groundwater. He then cranks up a wheezing diesel engine, lines up the drill over the offerings and releases a lever that brings an iron cylinder crashing into the earth.

"Business is growing each year," said Kumar. "But we've placed about as many tube wells as we can in this area."

On either side of Kumar's drill, the calm beauty of emerald rice patties belies a quiet catastrophe brewing hundreds of feet beneath the surface. As the water table in Punjab drops dangerously low, farmers across the state are investing - and often going into debt - to bore deeper wells with more powerful pumps.

Experts say the depletion of groundwater is a major threat to food security and economic stability in India, China, the United States, Mexico, Spain and North Africa. In China, the agricultural use of groundwater has skyrocketed, causing water tables to drop in many places by a rate of 5 feet a year.

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