Many of India’s largest cities are sitting on increasingly unstable land that threatens the structural integrity of thousands of buildings and the millions of people who occupy them.
Virginia Tech scientists have carried out a study into the country’s groundwater overuse, which is an increasing problem. Unsustainable extraction is often driven by factors such as subsidised electricity for farmers, and results in aquifers being depleted faster than they can be recharged.
In 2023, the state of Rajasthan, home to major cities such as Jaipur and Jodhpur, consumed as much as 149% of its annual groundwater recharge – in other words, for every litre of groundwater recharged through rainfall, nearly 1.5 litres of water were extracted.
“When cities pump more water from aquifers than nature can replenish, the ground quite literally sinks,” said Susanna Werth, assistant professor of geosciences. “Our study shows that this overexploitation of groundwater is directly linked to structural weakening in...