Groundwater continues to be extracted at frightening proportions in India and the fear of severe depletion of groundwater resources in the coming years is real. As if this is not enough, the available groundwater is also deteriorating in quality posing a severe threat to the health of the population. India drinks water poisoned with uranium A recent report titled 'Uranium occurance in shallow aquifers in India' published by Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation finds that the uranium contamination of groundwater is increasing in the country with several states reporting of increased uranium content in drinking water. Uranium can be very harmful to the body. While water containing low amounts of uranium is safe to drink, high levels of uranium in food and drinking water can lead to severe health effects like kidney damage! More studies are however needed to understand  the impacts of uranium on human health. What is uranium and where does it come from? Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that occurs in low concentrations in nature. It is present in natural form in certain types of soils and rocks, especially granites and metasedimentary rocks, as well as younger sedimentary deposits. Uranium can also be introduced in drinking water sources due to human induced activities such as mill tailings, emissions from the nuclear industry, and due to burning of coal and other fuels. Naturally occurring uranium has very low levels of radioactivity and chemical properties of uranium in drinking water are of greater health concern. A number of factors are found to affect uranium contamination  Amount of uranium contained in the sediments in an aquifer  Water-rock interactions that lead to the leaching or extraction of uranium from the sediments or rocks   Oxidation conditions that aid uranium to dissolve in water  The interaction of the leached uranium with other chemicals in the groundwater, such as bicarbonate, sulphate which aids uranium to dissolve in water  Human interventions such as overextraction of groundwater and increase in nitrate pollution due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers also trigger movement of uranium from the sediments into groundwater Drinking water standards for uranium U.S. EPA and the WHO have set drinking water standards for Uranium concentration in drinking water at 30 μg/L. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, India has prescribed the maximum limit of U in drinking water at 60 μg/L (ppb). However, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has not yet specified the norm for uranium level in drinking water. Uranium distribution in groundwater in India A total of 14377 groundwater samples were collected from groundwater monitoring stations (GWMS) established by CGWB for the study. The study found that uranium concentrations in ground water in shallow aquifers in the country varied from 0.0 to 2876 μg/L.