India
USAID’s Water-Energy Nexus Activity (WENEXA): tackling declining groundwater levels
USAID’s Water-Energy Nexus Activity (WENEXA) is designed to address seemingly intractable problems in India’s water and energy sectors. Electricity tariffs set under costs have led to the overuse of water for irrigation, which in turn has produced dramatic declines in groundwater levels. The mining of ancient aquifers from inexpensive deep wells has direct negative social impacts: water tables fall below levels that can be hand-pumped and water that was once free is replaced by water that must be purchased from owners of deep wells.
PA is helping to bridge the policy gap between the water and energy sectors so that problems involving the interaction of the two sectors can be addressed and reform efforts can move forward.
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