In a recent experience of speaking at the TEDx Youth 2024 Edition at Suchitra Academy International School Hyderabad, themed on Jigyasa, my curiosity and leading question was, ‘Why Water Conversations for Water Conservation?’
I believe this is a pertinent question ‘why water conversation’ and an idea worth sharing and spreading because it is now urgent to make people communicate and connect for collective action towards water conservation before it is too late to slow down and solve the rising water crises. Besides, since ideas change everything, I believe the idea of talking about the various aspects of water may empower people to acknowledge and appreciate the beautiful entity that makes the planet including we the people. It may motivate people to engage in the #Water Matters.
Here is a detailed script of my 12 minutes short speech that is structured around water, water crises, water education, water conservation, and water conversation.
My TEDx Talk
A developed society is one where women and water are healthy, happy and moving freely and safely. In Indian culture, both women and water are revered and referred as equivalent to God. With the changing time and culture, the diminishing reverence are putting both women and water under threat for a dignified living. Though both women and water are complex intertwined subjects, each needs independent focus. My focus of talk today is on ‘water’.Do we talk enough about water? Do we teach enough about water?
These questions are crucial as, Water Conversations are crucial to Water Conservation!
Do we need to conserve water? Why do we need to conserve water?
Is it practical to talk about the rising Water Crises?
We are facing an unprecedented impact of climate change and urbanization which is majorly manifested through water crises such as, such as, floods, droughts, erratic monsoons, etc. According to the United Nation’s estimation, 2/3 of the world population will be affected by water crises by 2025 and even more by 2050 when the urban population will rise to 68% and Climate change will be irreversible if business as usual continues.
India is among the most affected countries (World Resource Institute) where climate change and urbanization impacts are integral to the economic growth. The Niti Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (2019) says that, 12% population live the 'Day Zero' with 100 million living in water stress, and cities draw around 80% of groundwater with only 8% groundwater recharge by rainwater harvesting. 21 cities are declared to go Day zero by 2030 with Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad getting a taste of it. India also poorly ranks in the water quality index, with nearly 70% of water being contaminated.
According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, we have lost more than half the land cover of the waterbodies and the remaining half are reduced to less than half putting the waterbodies and the dependent biodiversity under severe stress including losing them too.
Hang on! Are we well-to-do urbanites impacted by water crises?
May be no! May be yes sometimes from floods if we live closer to a lake and sometimes from scarcity when water supply is rationed. There is genuine water crises faced by the poor vulnerable community more so because the crises are manufactured and manipulated by the planning and provision which are influenced by social-cultural-political practices by the rich and elites. The poor vulnerable are double impacted, firstly by the floods and droughts and then importantly by the discriminatory water supply distribution putting them in vicious challenges of accessibility and affordability.
The rising water crises in a country that is abundant in water resources and wisdom (Agarwal and Narain, 1997) to conserve and care is worth questioning and resolving.
Should crises be the reason to talk about Water?
Can impacts of crises motivate enough to conserve and care about water? May be not yet.
Is there something more to be motivated to conserve and care about water?
My take is No, since learning out of scare or scarcity is not a good idea.
There is much more and many good things to acknowledge and appreciate about water.
Would you like to consider yourself as a waterbody or a body of water? I do!
Personally, talking about water is important because I am Water. Seriously? How?
Logistically, I am a bag of water since, the body is filled up of 70% water. Is it a coincidence that planet earth is also made up of 70% water? Do we realize that, it is all one water in the planet that flows in you, in me and in other beings besides in the lakes, rivers, wetlands and all waterbodies? Infact we are a bag of wastewater who are constantly in the process of making oneself better than yesterday through learning and sharing which we call as living. Interestingly, we all carry a bit of ocean in our heads which keeps the mind charged of curiosity and questions.
So, logically, if the waterbodies outside are polluted, we are polluted too meaning we are impacted by that. So, water pollution is majorly caused by processes of urbanisation that generates serious amount of solid and liquid wastes. Water pollution adds to the water crises and is the major cause of the rising water epidemics alias water borne diseases, which is something serious to be concerned about according to World Health Organisation (WHO).
So, is it then enough reason to conserve and care about water? May be yes!
So, is there something to converse about conserving and caring about water then?
Yes, an important question that many water enthusiasts, those who know that despite water-water everywhere there is water crises, ponder with is, what can ‘I, as an individual’ do to conserve and care water?
Reminds me of the famous philosopher-poet Rumi’s (Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī) thought that, ‘You are a drop in the ocean and in each drop a potential of an ocean’.
A philosophical and important answer to conserve and care about water is to first know about it a bit more than H2O, water cycle and water crises in order to either not take it for granted or be afraid of it but to acknowledge and appreciate the connect we have with water. An important step then is to ‘talk about the water worries and wisdom’.
What to talk about water worry?
So, is it then enough reason to conserve and care about water? May be yes!
So, is there something to converse about conserving and caring about water then?
Yes, an important question that many water enthusiasts, those who know that despite water-water everywhere there is water crises, ponder with is, what can ‘I, as an individual’ do to conserve and care water?
Reminds me of the famous philosopher-poet Rumi’s (Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī) thought that, ‘You are a drop in the ocean and in each drop a potential of an ocean’.
A philosophical and important answer to conserve and care about water is to first know about it a bit more than H2O, water cycle and water crises in order to either not take it for granted or be afraid of it but to acknowledge and appreciate the connect we have with water. An important step then is to ‘talk about the water worries and wisdom’.
What to talk about water worry?
A physical and important way to conserve and care about water is to reduce our water footprint. We often perceive the water that is visible in the form of water that we drink and use in everyday domestic purposes besides that we see in the lakes, ponds, rivers, and all waterbodies. There is invisible water in everything that we consume from food to fancy products. Almost everything in the world requires freshwater to be produced and even recycling solid and liquid waste require freshwater. Our occupation and lifestyle influence consumeristic behaviour and increase water footprint through consumption of invisible water and production of solid and liquid waste. So, first we need to know how much water is required to make what to be able to make informed choices. This will also help us understand the wastewater better and where we can contribute in circularity of water. Afterall it is one water. Our effort thus has to be in reducing consumption of freshwater (through invisible water) to be able to reduce the production of wastewater and thereby reduce the water pollution.
What to talk about water wisdom? Just try to ‘be like water’ as Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching) says in Taoism. What it is to be like water?
One can talk about water from several aspects, from social, ecological, technical, cultural, political, arts, policy, practice, problems, etc.
While I was trying to research and teach about water since 2005 as an independent practitioner, it was challenging since not many institutions and organisations had the possibility of engaging in water matters. It was difficult to find living from water subject. Also, since I was not educated with a water expertise and not having past affiliation with respect to that, getting work was always challenging. By sailing over the years with random research and education opportunities, it was in 2020 when I found myself fully immersed in water talks and walks in policy, practice, research, and teaching.
I realised that, one thing is managing the resource (water here) and the other thing is managing the knowledge of the resource management. While the latter is more important but in our society the proponents of action dominate the proponents of knowledge, be it project allocation and/or accolades. The research and education die a slow death among many who passionately engage in water matters.
This is where being like water comes handy. To be like water is to practice being fluid, flexible, adaptive, and resilient. Being soft and transparent to inform people about your passion and profession; and at the same time being hard and tough according to situations to instigate the wrong things happening around and not submit oneself to wrong doings. Water teaches to flow gently, silently touching the banks of knowledge offered by the places and the people. Most important in this is to live a purpose of life in the purpose of others.
We can only appreciate and/or solve the water problems when we build a comprehensive knowledge system of water. We need the fragmented and the hard science of water be integrated and translated into simple citizen science that people can learn about and engage with in order to acknowledge and appreciate the vast complex world of water without getting intimidated and leaving it to the governments and corporates to take charge of the problem solving and provision of water. We also need to look at alternate ways water is being documented and disseminated over time such as arts, music, cultural, religion, spirituality, festivals and ceremonies.
It is then the idea of communicating water and connecting water enthusiasts germinated. I was keen to learn how water experts look at the problems and find ways to solve them. It took me year to design the concept, format, and functioning of the Wednesdays.for.Water, Friday Waters, and Monday Munching-Musing with Women for Water. This idea was brought to a few friends from academics, research and industry and to my students. We got onboard to take the water conversations to the people at large in May 2021. We started with Wednesday and then after some time with Friday and Monday sessions. Today, we are conducting regular sessions on various aspects of water and connecting several water experts and enthusiasts, those who are doing everything possible to avert the water crises and to communicate the beauty of water in different and alternate ways.
We have a repository of water matters that can be freely referred and revered (YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y28t8zm8 and https://tinyurl.com/4s7st69h) besides, a bank of water experts and enthusiasts, who can be reached very easily (https://wforw.in/). Altogether, we have conducted over 300 sessions on various aspects of water making us amongst the longest water conversations. These sessions have connected over 500 water experts and enthusiasts, those who are doing everything possible to avert the water crises.
Alongside the online sessions, onsite talks, special courses, walks, workshops, seminars, conference panels, publications besides consultancy, research, and advisory around various social-ecological-technological-institutional aspects of water management and governance are taken up to continue the water conversations in various possible ways.
The initiative is now registered as a not-for-profit organization namely, WforW Foundation. WforW is a Think Tank built and function as a Citizen Collective thriving on hope and trust to facilitate water conversations on the information and knowledge available on the water matters through various ways of communication and collaborations with the water enthusiasts with an aim to work collectively towards water conservation. W.for.W is abbreviated from we.for.water, water.for.world, world.for.water, wisdom.for.water, worries.for.water, women.for.water, water.for.women, walk for water, wheels for water, etc.
The most important learning from these conversations is that, water management is people management. Thus, we have to make Water Everybody’s Business (Anil Agrawal, et.al. 2001), business as in everyone’s matter whether we are impacted today or not. Since, we will be impacted soon, if the business as usual continues for long time. The rising floods, droughts and water pollution are examples and may soon knock our doors too if we do not change. But more importantly, water being integral part of one’s being, it should be natural to move beyond acknowledgement of it to appreciate the depth of intent and content around water matters. Thus #WaterMatters as a hashtag is must now.
The knowledge and the efforts of the experts and the governments can be more meaningful and impactful if people at large also know a bit more about water especially in a situation that not much formal water education is taking place and not many institutions are teaching water wholistically. So, the water conversations done by me and the team online and onsite are a genuine effort to bring the water conversations to people at large so that people understand a bit more about water to appreciate it more to be able to conserve and care.
Water communicates, so we have to learn to listen to it and to each other and other beings.
Water connects, so we have to connect with each other and with nature/water with a sense of oneness to come together to solve the immediate and long-term water problems.
Water cleanse, so we have to bring the knowledge together to bring more transparency in water decisions.
In this water journey of near three decades, I have learned to listen and listening to learn from the water experts and enthusiasts besides the people at large. This is allowing me to understand the vast knowledge available about water which actually needs institutionalisation.
When the speakers speak on our platform, I find myself as a water flowing between the giant rocks or along the banks by touching their ounce of wisdom to be a bit more enlightened and purify the soul. When I speak to people, I find myself as a water flowing through their veins and touch their every bit of being especially their heart. To me, this is to ‘be like water’. I am so obsessed with walking and talking about water that sometimes I feels diseased too.
I hope after listening to this journey, more people get on to water conversations and give time to conserving and caring about water. Every day water conversations are crucial. Water Education and Literacy is Urgent now!
Water has memory. If we remember water, water will remember us.
If we talk to water, water will talk to us. If we care about water, water will care about us.
That is why we say, Save Water to Save Life. ~!
—
*Entrepreneur, researcher, educator, speaker, mentor, and a keen political observer. More info on her are at: www.mansee.in, www.wforw.in, www.edc.org.in
One can talk about water from several aspects, from social, ecological, technical, cultural, political, arts, policy, practice, problems, etc.
I realised that, one thing is managing the resource (water here) and the other thing is managing the knowledge of the resource management. While the latter is more important but in our society the proponents of action dominate the proponents of knowledge, be it project allocation and/or accolades. The research and education die a slow death among many who passionately engage in water matters.
We can only appreciate and/or solve the water problems when we build a comprehensive knowledge system of water. We need the fragmented and the hard science of water be integrated and translated into simple citizen science that people can learn about and engage with in order to acknowledge and appreciate the vast complex world of water without getting intimidated and leaving it to the governments and corporates to take charge of the problem solving and provision of water. We also need to look at alternate ways water is being documented and disseminated over time such as arts, music, cultural, religion, spirituality, festivals and ceremonies.
It is then the idea of communicating water and connecting water enthusiasts germinated. I was keen to learn how water experts look at the problems and find ways to solve them. It took me year to design the concept, format, and functioning of the Wednesdays.for.Water, Friday Waters, and Monday Munching-Musing with Women for Water. This idea was brought to a few friends from academics, research and industry and to my students. We got onboard to take the water conversations to the people at large in May 2021. We started with Wednesday and then after some time with Friday and Monday sessions. Today, we are conducting regular sessions on various aspects of water and connecting several water experts and enthusiasts, those who are doing everything possible to avert the water crises and to communicate the beauty of water in different and alternate ways.
We have a repository of water matters that can be freely referred and revered (YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y28t8zm8 and https://tinyurl.com/4s7st69h) besides, a bank of water experts and enthusiasts, who can be reached very easily (https://wforw.in/). Altogether, we have conducted over 300 sessions on various aspects of water making us amongst the longest water conversations. These sessions have connected over 500 water experts and enthusiasts, those who are doing everything possible to avert the water crises.
Alongside the online sessions, onsite talks, special courses, walks, workshops, seminars, conference panels, publications besides consultancy, research, and advisory around various social-ecological-technological-institutional aspects of water management and governance are taken up to continue the water conversations in various possible ways.
The initiative is now registered as a not-for-profit organization namely, WforW Foundation. WforW is a Think Tank built and function as a Citizen Collective thriving on hope and trust to facilitate water conversations on the information and knowledge available on the water matters through various ways of communication and collaborations with the water enthusiasts with an aim to work collectively towards water conservation. W.for.W is abbreviated from we.for.water, water.for.world, world.for.water, wisdom.for.water, worries.for.water, women.for.water, water.for.women, walk for water, wheels for water, etc.
The most important learning from these conversations is that, water management is people management. Thus, we have to make Water Everybody’s Business (Anil Agrawal, et.al. 2001), business as in everyone’s matter whether we are impacted today or not. Since, we will be impacted soon, if the business as usual continues for long time. The rising floods, droughts and water pollution are examples and may soon knock our doors too if we do not change. But more importantly, water being integral part of one’s being, it should be natural to move beyond acknowledgement of it to appreciate the depth of intent and content around water matters. Thus #WaterMatters as a hashtag is must now.
The knowledge and the efforts of the experts and the governments can be more meaningful and impactful if people at large also know a bit more about water especially in a situation that not much formal water education is taking place and not many institutions are teaching water wholistically. So, the water conversations done by me and the team online and onsite are a genuine effort to bring the water conversations to people at large so that people understand a bit more about water to appreciate it more to be able to conserve and care.
Water communicates, so we have to learn to listen to it and to each other and other beings.
Water connects, so we have to connect with each other and with nature/water with a sense of oneness to come together to solve the immediate and long-term water problems.
Water cleanse, so we have to bring the knowledge together to bring more transparency in water decisions.
In this water journey of near three decades, I have learned to listen and listening to learn from the water experts and enthusiasts besides the people at large. This is allowing me to understand the vast knowledge available about water which actually needs institutionalisation.
When the speakers speak on our platform, I find myself as a water flowing between the giant rocks or along the banks by touching their ounce of wisdom to be a bit more enlightened and purify the soul. When I speak to people, I find myself as a water flowing through their veins and touch their every bit of being especially their heart. To me, this is to ‘be like water’. I am so obsessed with walking and talking about water that sometimes I feels diseased too.
I hope after listening to this journey, more people get on to water conversations and give time to conserving and caring about water. Every day water conversations are crucial. Water Education and Literacy is Urgent now!
Water has memory. If we remember water, water will remember us.
If we talk to water, water will talk to us. If we care about water, water will care about us.
That is why we say, Save Water to Save Life. ~!
—
*Entrepreneur, researcher, educator, speaker, mentor, and a keen political observer. More info on her are at: www.mansee.in, www.wforw.in, www.edc.org.in
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