“At the heart of the balance of ecosystems and societies, water is an essential factor of biodiversity. » This sentence, taken from the latest activity report of the French Development Agency (AFD), published in March, made environmental defense associations in Pondicherry, in southern India, jump. United under the banner of the Alliance for Good Governance, they oppose a project to drill 84 wells intended to supply drinking water to the city of one and a half million inhabitants and risks accelerating the exhaustion groundwater.
A program funded by more than 80% by AFD, which gave the green light to a loan of 65 million euros in 2017, despite the risks to the environment. “The project has been delayed because of the opposition it arouses”, acknowledges the agency, while adding that it has not “identified better solutions” to supply drinking water to the former French colony. “This project is a scandal, asserts Probir Banerjee, of the PondyCAN association, at the head of the protest movement. These wells drilled in rural areas to supply water to city dwellers risk depriving farmers and the poorest local communities of their livelihood. »
With a depth of up to 200 meters, these boreholes risk accelerating the depletion of groundwater, which is already overexploited. “In this region, in 2011 the water pumped was more than a third higher than the recharge of the groundwater by the infiltration of rain and surface water”, emphasizes Frédéric Landy, professor of geography at the University of Paris-Nanterre and former director of the French Institute of Pondicherry. A problem that is not limited to this region.
“Morally Responsible”
According to a 2020 assessment by the Central Ground Water Board and local governments, annual groundwater extraction in India is about 245 billion cubic meters, of which almost 90% is for agriculture, leaving few resources for city dwellers. Thirty Indian cities are at risk of severe water shortages by 2050, according to a 2020 World Wide Fund for Nature report, which calls for “nature-based solutions”such as watershed restoration and wetland restoration or creation.
“Drilling in coastal areas always presents a risk of seawater intrusion into aquifers [des terrains perméables permettant l’écoulement d’une nappe souterraine et le captage de l’eau] », adds Aude Vincent, a hydrologist at the University of Iceland, who has conducted research on the Pondicherry Basin, located along the Indian Ocean. A phenomenon aggravated by climate change, in particular the rise in sea level. “Increased salinity has a negative impact on plant growth and seed germination”alerted in 2017 to a report by the Indian Minister of Water Resources, which was also concerned about the“significant impact on manufacturing and food industries, for which low salinity water is an important requirement”.
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