https://e360.yale.edu/features/solar-water-pumps-groundwater-crops
"There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of India. By 2026,
more than 3 million farmers will be raising irrigation water from beneath their
fields using solar-powered pumps. With effectively free water available in
almost unlimited quantities to grow their crops, their lives could be
transformed. Until the water runs out.
The desert state of Rajasthan is the Indian pioneer and has more solar pumps
than any other. Over the past decade, the government has given subsidized solar
pumps to almost 100,000 farmers. Those pumps now water more than a million
acres and have enabled agricultural water use to increase by more than a
quarter. But as a result, water tables are falling rapidly. There is little
rain to replace the water being pumped to the surface. In places, the
underground rocks are now dry down to 400 feet below ground.
That is the effective extraction limit of the pumps, many of which now lie
abandoned. To keep up, in what amounts to a race to the bottom of the
diminishing reserves, richer farmers have been buying more powerful solar
pumps, leaving the others high and dry or forcing them to buy water from their
rich neighbors.
Water wipeout looms. And not just in Rajasthan."
Via Wayne Radinsky.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
