Rajasthan's Tivri-Mathania region is around 35 kilometres from Jodhpur and is predominantly desert land. But for over two decades, since the mid-90s, the region did not have a problem with water scarcity, mainly because nearly every farm in the region housed multiple tube wells, which formed the bedrock of their irrigation system.

In the last 10 years, however, the situation has changed drastically.

For farmers like Deda Ram, who cannot afford to depend on the region's irregular rainfall to sustain his five-acre fields, the situation has become dire. A depleted groundwater table has meant that the 3 tube wells which serviced his farm have become useless. He now fetches water from over 3 kilometers away to ensure his crops of garlic, cotton, groundnuts and chilli do not wither away.

Deda Ram said, “Our borewell has dried up. In our region, tube wells don't have water. Some have water, but it is salinated.”

The state government is aware of the situation, but its efforts to provide aid have not been very successful. And this has the farming community frustrated.

Farmer leader Amra Ram said, “In Rajasthan, wherever you had underground water which was suitable for farming, it has dried up. Government has spent thousands of crore on watersheds, but it has all gone in corruption.”

As of 2020, the central groundwater board says that of the 295 blocks in the state, the underground water levels had been over-exploited in 203 blocks. So nearly 69 percent of the state's blocks cannot be used anymore. The water level in 23 other blocks had reached critical levels, shrunk to semi-critical levels in 29 blocks and only 37 blocks have water above safe levels, but three of these blocks have been categorised as containing saline water.

The report also points to rising levels of magnesium, fluoride, chloride, sulphate, calcium, uranium and arsenic in groundwater.

This year's heatwave made the situation worse. The summer was especially difficult for people in Bhopalgarh, Nagaur, and Tivri-Mathania regions of the Jodhpur block. Farmers in these regions have to depend on rains for their irrigation and domestic needs, and the unpredictability makes this a less-than-favourable situation for a state like Rajasthan.

Every government which has ruled the state so far has claimed that it has worked to improve groundwater levels, but neither data nor ground realities support these claims.