In a village the borewell water is found deeper every year
In a village the borewell water is found deeper every year. Nitin says there is nothing to worry about, since the rains come every year. Parveen says rain arriving does not by itself bring the water back. Who is right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Parveen is right
Why
Nitin is correct that rain is what refills groundwater, and correct that it returns each year — those facts are solid, and without them there would be no water at all. What his argument leaves out is the comparison. Rain has to soak DOWN through soil to reach the underground store, and that is slow; a borewell pump lifts water out fast, all year, from many wells at once. If more is pumped in a year than seeps back, the level drops however faithfully the monsoon arrives. Concrete roads and lanes make it worse by sending rain into drains instead of into the ground. Test: the falling water level in the village is itself the measurement — it is the evidence that the two rates are already unequal. Parveen is right: what matters is not whether it refills, but whether it refills as fast as we empty it.
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