News > A Water Crisis Is Hiding Behind India’s Sugar Dominance

A Water Crisis Is Hiding Behind India’s Sugar Dominance

India is the world’s second-largest producer of sugar. Most of the country’s sugarcane is cultivated in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is known as the ‘sugar bowl of India’.

Sugar is the backbone of the local economy, but its growing environmental impacts are being ignored – with potentially disastrous consequences. Sugar mills and distilleries are one of India’s 17 highest-polluting industries, discharging water into the Ganga River.