Watershed: How We Destroyed India’s Water and How We Can Save It

by Mridula Ramesh

India is facing its worst water crisis ever, and some believe that by 2030 it will fail to meet half its water demand. Water availability per person in India has been decreasing for decades, leaving parts of the country in a cruel Day Zero situation, shuttering factories and pushing farmers over the brink. As the climate heats up, it is likely that swathes of land will be submerged, water-related extremes will reshape industry and famine will revisit the country.

In this fascinating, deeply researched book Mridula Ramesh takes us through 4,000 years of history to track how India's water has reached this critical point. From stories of ancient water-engineering marvels in the Indus Valley and Tamil Nadu to how water shaped medieval Delhi; from the burning fields of the country's north-west to the hilsa's curtailed journey; and from the forests of Kanha and dams in Arunachal to Kanpur's tanneries, Watershed uncovers how India's fate is gradually being sealed by the extremes of drought and floods.

Armed with this understanding, Mridula Ramesh lays out pragmatic, scalable solutions that can work for both India's temperamental water and its democratic exigencies. She describes how determined water warriors are
showing the way forward - from the fields of Bihar and Maharashtra to communities within Bengaluru's apartments and in the arid tracts of Rajasthan - and asserts that managing our water will usher in not just resilience but also the jobs India needs.

Sobering and persuasive, Watershed is an urgent call to action to every Indian citizen to do what it takes to secure our shared future.

Genres: India, Environment, Nonfiction

532 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2023

About the author

Mridula Ramesh is the founder of the Sundaram Climate Institute, which focuses on waste and water solutions and education. She is an active angel investor in cleantech startups, with a portfolio of over a dozen startups. A graduate with distinction of Cornell University, with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Mridula worked at McKinsey in Silicon Valley before returning to India. Leveraging on her two decades of management experience, she teaches a postgraduate class on climate change at the Great Lakes Institute of Management and is a regular columnist for Firstpost on Climate Change and has written earlier extensively for the Hindu. She is the Executive Director of Sundaram Textiles and lives and experiments in Madurai in a net zero-waste house with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Mili Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watershed By Mridula Ramesh
Genre - Nonfiction / Research
Rating - 4.7/5
India is facing its worst water crisis ever, and some believe that by 2030 it will fail to meet half its water demand. Water availability per person in India has been decreasing for decades, leaving parts of the country in a cruel Day Zero situation, shuttering factories and pushing farmers over the brink. As the climate heats up, it is likely that swathes of land will be submerged, water-related extremes will reshape industry and famine will revisit the country. In this fascinating, deeply researched book Mridula Ramesh takes us through 4,000 years of history to track how India's water has reached this critical point. From stories of ancient water-engineering marvels in the Indus Valley and Tamil Nadu to how water shaped medieval Delhi; from the burning fields of the country's north-west to the hilsa's curtailed journey; and from the forests of Kanha and dams in Arunachal to Kanpur's tanneries, Watershed uncovers how India's fate is gradually being sealed by the extremes of drought and floods. Armed with this understanding, Mridula Ramesh lays out pragmatic, scalable solutions that can work for both India's temperamental water and its democratic exigencies. She describes how determined water warriors are showing the way forward – from the fields of Bihar and Maharashtra to communities within Bengaluru's apartments and in the arid tracts of Rajasthan – and asserts that managing our water will usher in not just resilience but also the jobs India needs. Sobering and persuasive, Watershed is an urgent call to action to every Indian citizen to do what it takes to secure our shared future.

This book is an eye-opening, bold approach.
Wow, I am deeply stirred up and shaken by the author's in-depth and extensive research. And her strong yet crispy language makes it a compelling read.

The author brings out India's history of water management and thoroughly discusses why we failed to save our precious natural water thus nudging us to understand the intensity of today's situation, we are not away from a drastic change, need to make a change.

Her discussion was extremely well explained and on point with the research.



This book focuses sharply and says the hard truth. Mridula is very apt when she said "We think the water is free, in what has become a deeply entrenched emotional belief and this belief makes us fail to manage our water which is an enduring and perhaps the most important water fault line in India."

We don't have a water strategy
Mridula raised a finger to our eyes and how we must be wary of blaming all woes on climate change. That's not accurate, and worse still, it absolves us from even taking mental responsibility for our role in causing floods and drought. Furthermore, she offers a discussion about How inappropriate farming plans are making a recipe for disaster.
How other countries use their water and manage that water and how India is losing it, and many other things she discussed in her book. Many of us are taking water for granted, thinking water is a free right and not valuing the effort needed to manage that water is another culprit causing our city floods.

How ancient civilizations paid for their negligence of water management the evidence and discussion were very apt and scary.

The author narrated this book with lucid and crispy words, and she presented her research work and solution in a very skillful witty tone which makes this book a gripping one, I think this is the plus point of this book that made me read the book without getting exhausted by its' length.

This book is divided into two parts, in the first part Mridula discussed her research comprehensively, and in the second part she offers a solution that everyone can follow. This is a must-read book for all.

[Md Akhlaq · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝘁 by Mridula Ramesh

@hachette_india

#qotd How do you Re-Use RO Waste Water?

We have ignored the unique facets of India's waters we have built our cities, cultivated our food, and grown our businesses. And in doing so, we have created and stressed many fault lines of India's water, bringing us to a crisis point.

Watershed: How We Destroyed India's Water and How We Can Save It by Mridula Ramesh is a categorical document on water. Very few people are aware of the fact that countries like India largely depend heavily on rains for meeting their water requirements, which is a more alarming factor to meet the needs of water in case of water scarcity. So warming climate and other related factors are changing India's
plenteous water into something precious and volatile that needs to be managed with due care and caution.

This book particularly deals with two major factors; one is to “understand” the problem and another is an “action plan” describing the facets, faultlines, and stressors of India’s water resources. Watershed assesses the relationship of water with history and socio-political factors in the Indian subcontinent. Not only the effect of climate change but this book also covers the broad gamut of water in its historical, socioeconomic, technological and political contexts. This book takes its readers through a very striking 4000 years of history to understand how India's water has come through this catastrophe.

It's a very insightful book and offers potential solutions to get rid of this problem. It shows how the ways we think about water reflect specific public and societal values. This book details the stunning intellectual history of India's water management philosophy. A must-read book for every water-conscious individual.

#readwithak #𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗲d𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗪𝗲𝗗𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗜𝘁 #watercrisis #watermanagement #watermanagementsolutions

[Priya sankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book traces the history of India’s water, the stories from our literature, the politics and how we use and manage water. It points out that water has moved from being a responsibility to a right, which makes water provision powerful political capital, and water management political suicide.

You will be pleasantly surprised to find a dystopian short story in this book towards the end, under the section, The Road to hell, set in 2030. It starts ominously with this quote:“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. The story is quite likely to come true if we ignore to manage our groundwater.

Love the section on Delhi’s history tracing its water structures - baoli or stepwells and the water tanks. A baoli was also a place to socialise. They were designed with rooms, terraces and columns with places to meet and gossip. Haus Khas was once a tank.

You can listen to the author discussing this book and India’s water challenge in a podcast here: https://www.indiawaterportal.org/podc...

[Saurabh Varanasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book at a store. The synopsis looked fascinating and topic extremely relevant. Tales on water and its management have the tendency to be dry (pun unintended), but, Ms. Ramesh maintains an engaging narrative while simultaneously supplying dollops of information based on solid research and personal experiences. Her work background and current interests of investing in climate friendly start ups lend credibility to her larger agenda of stressing the importance of wise usage of water and the threats of not doing so. I have many takeaways from this book. Based on all the facts presented about the twisted history of water problems, the book is a must read for every Indian to introspect in retrospect.

[Siddharth · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We are responsible for our water and we need to manage it”

[Shweta · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute must read for anyone who wants to understand the importance of water in our lives as well as economy.

[Sundar Ganapathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on the water crisis facing the country , with in depth detailing on the issues and possible solutions. A big learning for anyone interested on the topic. Recommend.

[Yashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read in today's times