New Delhi, March 26 -- 'Water bankruptcy' is a term coined to convey a stage after which it is impossible to return to 'normal' water levels without major changes. Popularized by a January 2026 United Nations report calling out the reality of an era of "global water bankruptcy," the term has attracted considerable attention.

While globally relevant, the report highlights India as a hotspot for groundwater depletion, given our overdependence on rapidly diminishing aquifers. Thanks to decades of over-extraction, cities and rural regions in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and the Deccan are seeing borewells dry up as groundwater levels fall below the recovery level. The effects are visible in scarcity all around.

Infrastructure alone is ...