Groundwater Quality and Contaminations in India

India is the largest user of groundwaterGroundwater in the world (Saha et al., Clean and Sustainable Groundwater in India. Springer, 2017). The green revolutionGreen revolution initiated in the 1960s has given an immense push for groundwater extraction through the installation of millions of irrigation wellsIrrigation wells around the country (Saha et al., Clean and Sustainable Groundwater in India. Springer, 2017). Besides, the domestic water supplyDomestic water supply in the rural and suburban areas is almost entirely dependent on underlying aquifersAquifers. The recent initiatives by the Government of India under the Jal Jeevan Mission, where it is promised that 24 × 7 pipe water supplyPipe water supply will be available at the doorstep of every rural household, is immensely banking on groundwater ( https://jaljeevanmission.gov.in/about_jjm#mission ). Even in urban areas, traditionally it is believed to be dependent on surface waterSurface water sources like damsDams or large-scale extraction from rivers. However, the rising demand for water from the rapidly expanding much exceeds the availability of the water from the present sources, thus gradually dependence on groundwaterGroundwater is increasing. Irrigation consumes more than 90% of total groundwater extraction. The value of groundwater used for irrigation is between 7.6 and 8.3 billion US$/year and the size of the groundwaterGroundwater-based economy is somewhere between 75 and 80 billion US$ (Shah et al., Hydrogeol J 20:995–1006, 2012).