The human dimensions of groundwater depletion: Sophie Bhalla’s approach to groundwater research

Most scientists regard groundwater as a physical resource, a common compound quietly existing beneath their feet.  

For Dr. Sophie Bhalla, however, “it’s not just about water as a physical resource, to be used or misused. It’s about livelihoods, histories, and futures”. And that’s the heart of her work. Dr. Bhalla, a postdoctoral researcher at the Morwick G360 Groundwater Research Institute at the University of Guelph, traces how communities live with, rely on, and adapt to the resource beneath their feet. 

Dr. Bhalla came to Guelph following her PhD at the University of Oxford analyzing social-ecological drivers of groundwater user decision-making in fragile political systems. Due to its expertise in groundwater science and agriculture, Guelph presented a wonderful new home for the researcher interested in connecting the dots between hydrogeology and the lived realities of groundwater-dependent communities.  

Dr. Bhalla’s research encompasses the aquifers of northern India, China, and the United States, bridging continents and disciplines. But despite being essential to agricultural livelihoods and development, she believes groundwater is often overlooked in policy conversations.   

“Groundwater is often much more based on experiences and social norms rather than scientific analysis,” she says. In fact, across the globe, groundwater is frequently seen as a limitless gift, a belief shaped by generations of access. Especially in areas of increasing hydroclimatic uncertainties and climate extremes, the reliance on dwindling groundwater resources is increasingly tied to fear and hopelessness. These emotions directly influence whether communities trust policies targeted at regulating groundwater supplies and whether they choose to adapt to environmental change.  

Dr. Bhalla marvels at the complexity of groundwater science, management, and governance; its reach across many parts of life and its quiet but essential role in human development. 

“Water is fascinating,” she says. “It touches on so many different disciplines”. 

Globally, communities depend on groundwater to sustain agricultural production and livelihoods. Dr. Bhalla notes that dependence has made groundwater increasingly vulnerable due to over pumping of the physically limited resource. As a result, communities and rural economies subsidized by cheap groundwater resources now find their livelihoods stripped with little opportunity to reverse the depletion trend. Her research direction is shaped by the ways groundwater issues deeply affect the lives of farming communities. 

What fueled Bhalla’s lifelong passion for groundwater?  

Growing up in a household of scientists, Bhalla was exposed early on to the mindset of curiosity and critical thinking. Dinner conversations often revolved around scientific ideas and new approaches for problem-solving.  

Developing a curiosity for natural sciences as a way to critically examine society’s biggest challenges, she pursued her undergraduate degree in physical geography and followed it with a Master’s in water resource management. After her Master’s, she worked in government as a hydrogeologist and policy officer in the development sector. Her first years working in policy, however, left her with more questions than answers. She ultimately returned to academia to understand why policies around (ground)water more often than not fail and how communities can navigate these challenges.

“After my graduate studies, I thought I had all the basics down…and I was so wrong,” she says. Case in point: She assumed that better data and smarter policies would guarantee better outcomes. But on the ground, she saw that water use was shaped just as much by history, trust, and lived experience. 

It was a move away from technical fixes to people-centric research that was grounded in the lived experiences of communities. During her postdoc, her journey led her to the Indian state of Haryana. She collaborated with colleagues at Kurukshetra University, inspired by the region’s role as a groundwater hotspot. There, the pressures of rapid irrigation expansion and an unregulated water landscape have led to severe depletion and left a real impact on communities.

In Haryana, she visited farming families in regions once known as agricultural heartlands, where groundwater depletion is reshaping daily life. She learned how water issues intersect with migration, agriculture, and everyday resilience. 

One of the most powerful lessons Dr. Bhalla took from the field was the emotional weight farmers carry. After investing so much into each growing season, many receive little in return. That reality is made even more painful by the worsening effects of groundwater depletion. “You put in so much into getting a good crop as a farmer, and you get so little in return”, she says. These observations weren’t about abstract policy issues; rather, they were everyday challenges faced by people whose livelihoods were on the line.   

Through it all, she noticed the exodus of young farmers from these areas. “When young people leave, what will happen to the region as a whole, what will happen to food security?” she asks. 

She gathered data through interviews, which is not unusual. But rather than treating her interviews as simple data collection, Dr. Bhalla looked on them as shared moments of understanding.

Dr. Bhalla’s transdisciplinary, community-rooted approach to research in India aligns with CIRCLE’s commitment to interdisciplinary research and meaningful community partnerships. Dr. Bhalla isn’t from Haryana herself, so she doesn’t have cultural or linguistic familiarity there.  

But she does have humility and respect. And that opens her to creating space for stories that might otherwise be missed. “Research should be about mutual respect and engaging in conversations that matter”, she says. 

To students interested in this kind of work, Dr. Bhalla offers a simple but powerful message: real insight begins with humility. “If you feel like you're the smartest in the room, you're doing something wrong”, she says. For her, the most meaningful work begins when we learn to listen…not just to data, but to people. She encourages students to approach communities not as subjects but as collaborators, and to value relationships as much as results.  

“Real learning, and perhaps real change however small it may be, happen when you’re listening”, she says. 

Soha Mohammad is a student writer for CIRCLE. She is in the third year of her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science at the University of Guelph.

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