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Courses » Water, Society and Sustainability

Water, Society and Sustainability

ABOUT THE COURSE:

The global water scenario is beset by multiple challenges: water availability, severe inequity to water access and entitlements across social and spatial lines, frequent floods and droughts, disputes over corporate control of limited water resources, etc. The world appears to be on track to halve the number of people without access to safe clean water. However, in the urban Global South, this success masks regional and local inequalities and a process of urbanization without infrastructure, which is particularly acute in the growing peripheries of existing cities. Interestingly enough, lessons can be learnt from small-scale community water conservation practices and localized needs-driven initiatives. Within this context, it is important to understand and address water beyond the physical and technical attributes and explore the complex and cyclical processes through which water shapes, and, is in turn shaped by society. The course is located at the intersections across water, technology, science and society towards sustainable future. It combines fundamental theoretical, methodological approaches and empirical case studies to introduce and familiarize students with water-society relationship: the contemporary challenges and prospective potentials.

Important For Certification/Credit Transfer:

Weekly Assignments and Discussion Forum can be accessed ONLY by enrolling here

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Note: Content is Free!

All content including discussion forum and assignments, is free


Final Exam (in-person, invigilated, currently conducted in India) is mandatory for Certification and has INR Rs. 1100 as exam fee.


INTENDED AUDIENCE:

Located at the intersections across science, society, technology and sustainability, the course will be highly relevant for students from different disciplinary backgrounds including: agriculture, water resource engineering, environmental sciences, rural development, civil engineering, geology and humanities and social sciences. 

CORE/ELECTIVE: Elective. However, the option remains open.

UG/PG: It will be a PG course (hence open at both UG and PG levels).

PREREQUISITES: NIL

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Other companies interest (some of which have approached the instructor) can be explored. 

1534 students have enrolled already!!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:




Dr Jenia Mukherjee is Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Her research interest spans across environmental humanities, water political ecology, urban ecology and development studies. In 2013, she was awarded the World Social Science Fellowship by the International Social Science Council. In 2010 and 2015 she received the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Government of Australia sponsored Australian Leadership Awards Fellowship (ALAF) for her research on riverine island communities. 
She had conducted and organized several workshops, conferences and seminars. She had recently organized an AICTE course on Combining hydrology and hydrosocial: Towards comprehensive understanding of river systems at IIT Kharagpur (October 2017).   
She had published three books (2014, 2018), several articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.  


COURSE LAYOUT:


Time Period

Lecture No.

Title of Lecture

 

Week 1

1.

Setting the Context

2.

Beyond Hydrology

3.

Socio Hydrology

4.

Political Ecology of Water

5.

Hydrosocial

 

 

Week 2

6.

Critical Physical Geography

7.

The South Asian Context

8.

Water Harvesting and Water Use Techniques in Ancient India 1

9.

Water Harvesting and Water Use Techniques in Ancient India 2

10.

Water Harvesting and Water Use Techniques in Ancient India 3

 

 

Week 3

11.

Water Technology in Medieval India 1

12.

Water Technology in Medieval India 2

13.

‘Colonial Hydrology’

14.

Dams and Development in Contemporary India

15.

The Farakka Barrage Project: Historical and Technical Details

 

 

Week 4

16.

The Farakka Barrage Project: Socio-environmental Implications

17.

Urban Waters: Historical and Political Ecological Perspectives

18.

Transforming Trajectories of Blue Infrastructures of Kolkata

19.

Peri-urban Water Justice in the Global South

20.

Discussion and Conclusion



SUGGESTED READING MATERIALS:

Acharya A (2015) The cultural politics of waterscapes. In: Bryant RL (ed) The International Handbook of Political Ecology. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.373–386. 

 Allen A, Hofmann P, Mukherjee J and Walnycki A (2017) Water trajectories through non-networked infrastructure: insights from peri-urban Dar es Salaam, Cochabamba and Kolkata. Urban Research & Practice 10(1):22–42. 

 Bakker K (2003) Archipelagos and networks: urbanization and water privatization in the South. The Geographical Journal 169(4): 328–341. 

 Bouleau G (2014) The co-production of science and waterscapes: The case of the Seine and the Rhône Rivers, France. Geoforum 57: 248–257. 

 Budds J, Linton J and McDonnell R (2014) The hydrosocial cycle. Geoforum 57: 167–169. 

 Budds J (2009) Contested H2O: Science, policy and politics in water resources management in Chile. Geoforum 40(3): 418–430.

 D'Souza, R (2006) Water in British India: The Making of a ‘Colonial Hydrology. History Compass 4/4: 621-28. 

 D’Souza R (2009) River as resource and land to own: the great hydraulic transition in Eastern India. In: Conference on Asian environments shaping the world: conceptions of nature and environmental practices, 19-21 March, 2009, National University of Singapore, Singapore. 

Mukherjee J (2018) From hydrology to hydrosocial: historiography of waters in India. In: J. Caradonna (ed.), Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability (UK: Routledge). 

Klingensmith D (2007) One valley and a thousand: dams, nationalism, and development. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 

Swyngedouw E (2009) The political economy and political ecology of the hydro-Social Cycle. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education 142(1): 56–60.
CERTIFiCATION EXAM :
  • The exam is optional for a fee.
  • Date and Time of Exam: October 28, 2018 (Sunday): 
  • Time of Exams: Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon session: 2pm to 5pm.
  • Exam for this Course will be available in both morning & afternoon sessions.
  • Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
  • The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published.

CERTIFICATE:

  • Final score will be calculated as : 25% assignment score + 75% final exam score
  • 25% assignment score is calculated as 25% of average of  Best 3 out of 4 assignments
  • E-Certificate will be given to those who register and write the exam and score greater than or equal to 40% final score. Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur.It will be e-verifiable at http://nptel.ac.in/noc/