Pesticides are a category of chemicals used worldwide as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, molluscicides, nematicides, and plant growth regulators to control weeds, pests, and diseases in crops as well as for human and animal health. When pesticides are used, crop and food yields increase, and the spread of diseases by vectors is significantly reduced. They have, however, been used in an uncontrolled and indiscriminate manner, which has raised severe concerns for the environment in general as well as the health of people, birds, and other animals in particular. Despite widespread use bans, some of the least biodegradable and ecologically persistent pesticides, such as organochlorines, are nevertheless being used more often. Pesticides are extremely harmful to biological systems because of their fast lipid solubility and bioaccumulation in creatures other than their intended targets. Pesticides may have a variety of negative impacts, even at low concentrations, which may be seen in biochemical, molecular, or behavioural ways. Pesticide and residue water pollution is influenced by a number of factors, including drainage, rainfall, microbiological activity, soil temperature, treatment surface, application rate, solubility, mobility, and pesticide half-lives. The majority of pesticides used in India today, such as DDT and HCH, are organochlorine insecticides. There have been reports of the presence of pesticides in fresh water systems and samples of bottled mineral water from Delhi, Bhopal, and other cities, as well as some rural areas. Pesticide pollution's negative impacts on India's drinking water and riverine systems have been discussed in this review.