On the Water Front

Data-Driven Solutions for India’s Groundwater Crisis: The Role of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

By Leah Beaulac / Published: November 14, 2024

Gathering accurate data as close as possible to the desired impact area of a water management project is a critical part of an effective Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning program. Here, Avinash Shivji Pande and Lakshmikantha NR — from EDF’s partner WELL Labs — collect data from a recharge pit in Jalna, Maharashtra. Read more about this particular intervention.

As groundwater depletion accelerates amid climate change and growing agricultural demands, integrating Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) into water management strategies can safeguard India’s water security and resilience.

Groundwater has sustained human societies for thousands of years, serving as a critical shared resource. However, the current rate of extraction — driven largely by climate change, population increase, and intensified irrigation — is outpacing recharge rates worldwide. At the same time, groundwater irrigation has proven essential for food security, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation, particularly in countries like India. Agriculture alone consumes roughly 90% of India’s groundwater, not only supporting domestic food security but also making India a major player in global food exports.

This reliance, however, comes at a significant cost. Over-extraction is leading to diminishing societal benefits, reflected in declining agricultural productivity, decreased adaptive capacity at the community level, and worsening water quality. Without effective adaptation and mitigation measures, climate-related water impacts are projected to lower global GDP by mid-century, with the heaviest losses expected in low- and middle-income countries. Read More »

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EDF deepens efforts to recharge groundwater, bolster farmer prosperity in India

By Jonathan Seefeldt / Published: October 15, 2024


EDF’s Leah Beaulac (bottom right) and Nikhil Goveas (right) listen to a groundwater user group meeting in Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh.

EDF is helping farmers address one of their core climate challenges: securing a reliable water supply. This September, an EDF team led by Ann Hayden, Nikhil Goveas, Gopal Penny and Leah Beaulac conducted a series of comprehensive site visits and workshops across drought-prone areas of central India.

Water availability in India is a core climate issue for the world. India is by far the largest user of groundwater in the world. More than 60% of the country’s irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies depend on groundwater. Global food prices and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers depend on India finding a path to sustainable groundwater use. EDF is committed to building a network of partnerships to help achieve this critical climate goal.

EDF’s work in India spans a number of workstreams including Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate Resilient Water Systems (CRWS).

Every year, billions are invested from the public and private sector in water management in India, yet little is known about the effectiveness of various interventions. That’s where EDF and partners are stepping in to evaluate these approaches on the ground and thereby improve investments and overall resilience at scale.

The water team’s trip deepened EDF’s partnerships with in-country organizations and experts doing remarkable work to recharge groundwater, create more resilience to water scarcity and help farmers thrive.

EDF’s Gopal Penny (left) works with WELL Labs’ Lakshmikantha NR and Avinash Pande to inspect groundwater recharge structures in Jalna, Maharashtra. Photo: Ananya Revanna

First up on the visit: treks through many fields muddied by a generous monsoon to inspect field-level groundwater recharge structures in north-central Maharashtra. EDF and WELL Labs — an India-based solutions-focused research startup — have been supporting local partners in evaluating the design and impact of these structures on local groundwater recharge and farmer prosperity in the region. Our new joint report explains more.


EDF staff listen to leaders of a regional non-profit describe the history of a unique groundwater collectivization program whose impact EDF is helping to quantify.

Next, some long discussions and delicious homemade meals with farmers working the beautiful, bouldered landscape of western Andhra Pradesh. EDF and WELL Labs are evaluating the effectiveness of a remarkable groundwater sharing program that has set up water user associations where neighbors share groundwater and agree to forgo drilling new borewells. The negotiations are hard work. Sharing water can be a deeply personal issue. Yet many are buying into the message of working together rather than drilling alone — which could further overdraft the aquifer. The participants and the design of the program are deeply inspiring and serve as a model of community spirit that we need more echoes of in other groundwater-strained regions.

(From L to R) WELL Labs’ Vivek Grewal, EDF’s Nikhil Goveas, Ann Hayden, and Gopal Penny help lead a lively discussion during the national roundtable on India’s water sector that EDF co-hosted in New Delhi.

Finally, the EDF team ended the historic visit by co-hosting an intense, first-ever national roundtable on monitoring, evaluation, and learning in India’s water sector. Leading scholars, non-profit practitioners, funders and business leaders joined us in the leafy confines of New Delhi’s India International Centre for a stimulating day of discussion. EDF is supporting the development of a data-rich toolbox to help inform government, corporate, and non-profit water interventions across India. Check out key takeaways and next steps from the event.


EDF co-hosted, alongside our in-country partner WELL Labs, the first-ever national roundtable on monitoring, evaluation, and learning in India’s water sector. The event featured leading experts from academic, non-profit, and corporate groups.

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How public-private partnerships can improve water sustainability

By Jonathan Seefeldt / Published: April 12, 2024

The scale of the global freshwater crisis requires an all hands effort. Fostering diverse, sometimes difficult, partnerships — particularly between policymakers, producers, and frontline communities — is at the heart of EDF’s water program.

Buzz Thompson’s new book argues the scale of the water crisis requires stronger public-private collaboration.

Partnership is also at the center of an intriguing new book from Stanford law and environmental social sciences professor Barton “Buzz” Thompson. In Liquid Asset: How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis, Thompson argues partnership — between the private sector, lawmakers, state agencies, philanthropic foundations, and non-profits such as EDF — gives us the best chance to address the growing freshwater challenges confronting the world today. He explores exactly how such public-private partnerships can develop by addressing four key questions:

    1. Does the private sector promise anything unique in solving the global water crisis?
    2. What are the risks of private involvement given the “public-ness” of water?
    3. What are the challenges of working in a traditionally public sector?
    4. How exactly can the private and public sectors partner?

Read More »

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‘We are driving a car without a fuel gauge’ — data and localization needs dominate the emerging global consensus on groundwater

By Jonathan Seefeldt / Published: August 28, 2023

Groundwater professionals have long united around the desire to “make the invisible visible.” It’s a slogan that finds its way into most conversations, publications, and speeches on the global groundwater crisis. Last year’s United Nations World Water Development Report focused entirely on groundwater. It’s chosen title? Groundwater, making the invisible visible.

One could be forgiven then for expecting groundwater to be highly visible at last week’s World Water Week—the sprawling annual gathering around which much of the global discussion on water pivots. Yet, mirroring ground-reality across much of the world, groundwater remained largely out of the spotlight. Only a handful of sessions, out of hundreds on offer, focused on the topic and none received center-stage treatment.

That is not to say there were no fruitful discussions on groundwater in Stockholm. In fact, the sessions that did focus on the topic produced some substantial conversations that provide a glimpse at the emerging global consensus on both the need for improved management at multiple scales and specific steps required to facilitate such improvements. Read More »

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