Impact of Ethanol Production on Water Resources

You are very worried

that ethanol has reduced your car's mileage and is damaging its parts,

but you don't care at all about how ethanol is sacrificing your life.

Let me explain the whole thing. Watch the video

till the end and then decide whether your car is more valuable or your life.

The government is very happy that E20, E85,

and now even E100 are being accomplished.

The ethanol blending target has been achieved ahead of schedule.

But where did this ethanol come from?

And what price have you paid for it? To make ethanol, two things are needed.

First is food crops— sugarcane, rice, maize, etc., and second is water,

a lot of water. How much water? According to the government's own data,

to make one liter of ethanol, if rice is used,

10,790 liters of water are needed, and if sugarcane is used,

3,630 liters of water are needed.

Thousands of liters of water are being used for one liter of fuel.

Where is this water coming from? From underground, groundwater.

And where are these distilleries built where ethanol is being made?

In the very places where groundwater is already depleting,

because crops grow more there,

and crops grow more in places where more water can be extracted. For example,

in Punjab, groundwater extraction is 156% of its recharge capacity,

meaning we are extracting 56%

more water every year than what goes back into the earth.

And the government has not done water stress mapping for even a single distillery,

no audits, no checks. Now look at the result.

NITI Aayog itself is saying that by 2030,

21 major cities in India will run out of groundwater. Delhi, Bangalore,

Mumbai are on the list.

And still, 200,000 people die every year just because they don't get safe

drinking water. Think about it, for ethanol,

our food is gone and our water is also going into petrol. You blended 20% ethanol,

brother, but what will you do about the water? Is water more precious or ethanol?

Let me know in the comments.