Water is integral to life & society but it is clear that equity and sustainability have not driven the social frameworks and water systems for competing demands on water. Worse still, there has no way for the poor & disempowered to assert their rights to basic needs of water which affect their lives and livelihoods so deeply. The misallocations to wasteful lifestyles of elites and inefficient or wrong industries have strained the ecosystem, whose vital needs & logic can only be ignored at our own peril.
Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, River & People and Anupam Mishra of Gandhi Peace Foundation will initiate the discussion by their presentations. Himanshu Thakker will talk about increasing reliance on groundwater to meet the growing demands of water and the needs of most other water sub sectors in an unsustainable way while Anupam Mishra will focus on a desert context in Rajasthan, where water is naturally scarce, and how some older societies, have met the challenge raising broader questions on the linkages between state, society and water (Raj, Samaj aur Pani). The main purpose of organizing these discussions is to facilitate discussion and further engagement. After the initial presentation by the speakers, we would urge you to share your views and participate actively.
This meeting is part of our ongoing series of discussions that we in Delhi Platform have been organizing on issues related to our core concern – Climate Crisis, Equity and Sustainability. Earlier discussion meetings were around Water, Energy, Coal and its costs, Nuclear Energy in India and People Struggles & Food Security, Peak Oil and Urban Agriculture.
In solidarity,
Soumya Dutta (Delhi Platform) – Tel: 9213763756
Arun Bidani (Jal Samvaad) – Tel: 9971678832
Rajni Kant Mudgal (South Asian Dialogues for Ecological Democracy)
Fr. John (Indian Social Institute)