← External Forces: Climate & Resource (all topics)
Water stress & groundwater depletion
What it is
India uses about 80% of its water for agriculture, largely from groundwater extracted with subsidised power, and a large share of assessment blocks are over-exploited or critical. Industrial users increasingly face allocation limits, higher tariffs and mandatory reuse
Thermal power, textiles, paper, chemicals, beverages and food processing are the exposed industrial consumers
Impact on industries
- Water is becoming a licence-to-operate issue rather than a cost line - allocation refusal or withdrawal can halt a plant regardless of its economics
- Thermal power and pulp and paper are water-intensive at scale, so siting and expansion increasingly depend on water availability rather than on land or fuel
- Creates structural demand for water treatment, recycling, zero-liquid-discharge systems, drip irrigation and efficient pumps
- Free farm power is the root cause of over-extraction, so the fix is a politically difficult tariff reform rather than a technology one