India's Water Crisis: 10,000 liters of Water required to Produce 1 Liter of Ethanol - E20 fuel

• NITI Aayog has warned by 2030, 21 major cities—including Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai—are at risk of running out of groundwater, creating a "Day Zero". Day Zero" refers to the critical moment a city or region runs out of potable water, forcing the shutdown of taps and implementation of emergency rationing.

• India is facing its worst water crisis, with 600 million people already experiencing high-to-extreme water stress.

• E20 fuel (a mix of 20% ethanol, 80% petrol) is being promoted as a cleaner-burning, more sustainable alternative to pure petrol, offering lower carbon emissions in vehicles, better octane ratings, and reduced oil imports thereby supporting national development.

Is E20 fuel Green?

Ethanol used in E20 fuel is made from starch rich plants like Rice, Sugarcane and Maize. Producing 1 litre of ethanol from rice requires around 10,790 liters of water, which includes water used for irrigation during cultivation, according to Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra, who shared the data at a global conference in Delhi in 2024. Typically, growing 1 kg of rice requires approximately 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water. Since 1 ton (1,000 kg) of rice produces approximately 425 to 470 liters of ethanol, the water consumption per liter of ethanol stands at around 10,790 liters of Water. By comparison, maize requires about 4,670 litres and sugarcane around 3,630 liters per liter of ethanol. This concept is called Virtual water.

“An acre of Sugarcane crop requires as much water as 10-12 acres of crops like Jowar or 3000 rural households"- P.Sainath

To make a cup of tea, physically it require less than a cup of water. However, when we consider the amount of sugar, tea, and milk, which we add, although not physically visible, takes up 35 liters of water per cup, while one cup of coffee takes 140 liters of water to prepare. All this water, which is invisible in such items and goods is known as “Virtual Water”. Every product we consume daily from food to cloths contains virtual water.

China is conserving its water supply by importing water intensive crops such as soya and imposing restrictions on exports of water intensive crops. Gulf countries follows the same pattern. But, India's Government doesn't seems to understand this growing trend.

If energy security is essential, the government should promote sugarcane and corn-based ethanol, not rice. But in reality, a profound policy contradiction emerges. While warnings of a water crisis loom, the government has increased the rice allocation to 5.2 million tonnes for the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2024-25 and is poised to increase it to 9 million tonnes in ESY 2025-26. A new "policy maneuver" has now been adopted to achieve this goal.

There is a plan to reduce the share of "broken rice" in the grain distributed to the poor under the Public Distribution System (PDS) from 25 to 10 percent. The direct purpose of this reduction is to save approximately 9 million tons of broken rice annually and divert it to the ethanol industry. The frightening thing is that in this obsession with "green fuel," we are "burning" billions of liters of groundwater, which takes a long time for nature to recharge. Groundwater constitutes 40% of India's water needs but is depleting rapidly due to over exploitation. This is not just energy security, but also a robbery of the water rights of future generations. 

Water crisis & Agriculture:

The most brutal aspect of this entire water policy is the narrative that has been woven against the farmers. For years, these farmers have been accused of "drinking" the country's groundwater by growing paddy (rice). They have been declared the main culprits of depleting water levels. Farmers have been insulted continuously for excessive water consumption. But, meanwhile, Ethanol distilleries which use the same rice to produce Vehicle fuels are painted as national hero supporting nation's growth shows us the real picture of our system.

Is Ethanol Blending helping to increase farmers income?

This policy has had the worst impact on maize farmers, who were encouraged to grow maize by the government's dream of becoming 'energy providers.' However, due to the increased rice quota, maize prices have plummeted in the market, forcing them to sell their crop at throwaway prices. For the past year, maize farmers have received an average of Rs 1,600 per quintal instead of the MSP(Minimum Support Price) of Rs 2,400 per quintal. 

It is important to note that the largest portion of the country's ethanol capacity of 1,822 crore liters is concentrated in the same states that desperately crave every drop of water. Maharashtra has plants with a capacity of 396 crore liters. While farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada struggle for water, ethanol plants continue to operate uninterrupted. Similarly, sugarcane and grain-based ethanol plants in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are "squeezing" groundwater, which NITI Aayog says is on the verge of depletion.  

Does E20 reduce import bills and improve foreign exchange reserve of India?

It is promoted by Union Government of India that this ethanol blending reduces India's import bill by 30,000 crore. Its only partially true. To encourage ethanol blending, Indian Government is providing a lot of subsidies to distilleries from interest free loans, capital grants to distilleries and other incentives to keep them away from losses. This will come upto to 10,000 crores. Meanwhile, Rice, Maize and Sugarcane primarily used in producing ethanol is already subsidized by Union government of India by providing Minimum support price. For example, for every liter of ethanol produced from rice, Union government gives around Rs.40 as farm subsidy. This cost should be added with the increased maintenance cost of automobiles which uses E20 fuel and milage drop of around 5%. If we calculate all these hidden cost involved in ethanol production and blending, it will cost negatively to every Indian citizens.

Who Benefits from E20 Blending?

Two familiar names comes by: CIAN Agro Industries and Nikhil Gadkari. Nikhil Gadkari is the son of Union Minster of Road Transport and Highway, Nitin Gadkari. Nikhil Gadkari is the Visionary MD of CIAN Agro Industries. CIAN operating as a traditional agro-processing company focused on edible oils and packaged foods. Quarterly revenues struggled around Rs 17 crores with minimal profits of Rs 10 lakh in early 2024.

As of 2025, at Rs 3,460.15 per share in Bombay stock exchange, the company commanded a market capitalization of Rs 9,683 crores on October 15, translating to approximately $1.15 billion. This represents one of the most spectacular corporate transformations in recent memory, with the stock gaining roughly 1,500% over twelve months.

What changed suddenly out of the blue? Nitin Gadkari's vocal push for ethanol blending and his sons operated companies that could benefit from it. This created an unavoidable perception on conflicts of interest.

Hardeep Puri(right), India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas is known to have strong ties with Epstein. His name has appeared more than 400 times in Epstein files. Critics say that Epstein is known to have run child prostitution network to blackmail country heads. This scenario question India's Energy security & Energy sovereignty.

This is tantamount to robbing the public again by branding destruction as a 'revolution.' It's worth wondering: when the taps run dry in 2030, will the ethanol in a car tank quench anyone's thirst? The reality is that oil can be purchased from the market, but lost groundwater cannot be restored. The time has come for us to look at the definition of energy security through the lens of 'water security', otherwise history will remember us as a country that wasted precious groundwater to run vehicles. 

Meanwhile, India met its target of 20% ethanol blending (E20) in petrol in 2025, marking a key milestone in its biofuel programme. The latest move by Union Government signals a shift toward even higher blending levels like E85 which is 85% ethanol and 15% Petrol which will be disastrous to Indian economy, environment and water security of the nation. Yet, letting corrupt politicians and their supporters go unaccountable might lead us to Day Zero where we might have no water or time to think about alternatives.

According to Nithi Ayog, Indian government's think tank says, 200,000 people die annually in India due to inadequate access to safe water. 12% of India's population already lives in Day Zero conditions with no access to safe drinking water. We should awaken as a society before this 12% becomes 100%. Experts say there will be fighting and death, if we go towards Day Zero.

Share this story within your circles & family to safeguard water security of India. Awareness is the first step towards change.

Further reading & References:

Virtual Water: https://www.indiawaterportal.org/drinking-water/virtual-water-and-water-footprint

Rice based ethanol: https://www.kisantak.in/knowledge/story/rice-based-ethanol-water-crisis-india-policy-debate-1382612-2026-04-28

CIAN Agro & Gatkari's https://www.cartoq.com/car-news/cian-agros-meteoric-rise-from-agro-processing-to-billion-dollar-ethanol-giant/

Day Zero: https://www.context.news/net-zero/why-is-indias-e20-ethanol-fuel-facing-a-driver-backlash