Water First

Foreword - Peter P Mollinga
Introduction: Placing Water First - Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt
I. THE REGIONAL POLITICS OF WATER IN SOUTH ASIA
National and Regional Water Concerns: Setting the Scene - Ramaswamy R. Iyer
The Monsoon Rivers of South Asia: A Geomorphological Perspective on Managing Monsoon Rivers - Avijit Gupta
The Politics of Water in Colonial India: The Emergence of Control - David Hardiman
The Regional Politics of Water Sharing: Contemporary Issues in South Asia - Douglas Hill
Global Conventions and Regulations on International Rivers: Implications for South Asia - Binayak Ray
River-Linking and its Discontents: The Final Plunge for Supply-side Hydrology in India - Rohan D'Souza
II. REGIONAL ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND APPROACHES
Water Quality and Economic Growth in India - Robert J. Wasson
When a Public Health Story Goes Sour: Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water in Bangladesh - Bruce Caldwell
Arsenic Contamination of Ground Water: Social Determinants of an Environmental Crisis in India - Atanu Sarkar
Gender and Integrated Water Resources Management in South Asia: The Challenge of Community-managed Alternatives - Sara Ahmed
Institutions for Integrated Water Resources Management: Lessons from Four Indian States - Vishal Narain and Saurabh Chugh
Top-down or Bottom-up?: Negotiating Water Management at the Local Level in South Asia - Saravanan V.S
Watershed Development Programmes and Rural Development: A Review of Indian Policies - Sucharita Sen
III. INTERPRETING COMMUNITY ROLES AND INITIATIVES
Beyond 'Dispositif' and 'De-politicization': Spaces of Civil Society in Water Conservation in Rural Rajasthan - Saurabh Gupta and Subir Sinha
Submerged Voices and Transnational Environmentalism: The Movement Against the Sardar Sarovar Dam - Judy Whitehead
Negotiating Water Management in the Damodar Valley: Kalikata Hearing and the DVC - Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt
Endogenous Water Resource Management in North-East Bangladesh: Lessons from the Haor Basin -

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt has been closely associated with local level movements working on water and related environmental issues in West Bengal, India. Trained as a human geographer from Calcutta University, Kuntala has researched water and society in Lower Damodar Valley region. She has been a member of SAARC Track III water initiatives and been a resource person for Panos Institute's flood enquiry. Kuntala has set up a Gender Water Network (see http: //www.rspas.anu.edu.au/gwn), and is a member of the Steering Committee of Gender Water Alliance. She has written widely about water resources, and has guest edited 'Water for People' special issue (51.1) of the journal Development. Kuntala teaches and conducts research also on community development in mining areas and has authored several papers and books. Her recent publications include the edited volume Fluid Bonds: Views on Gender and Water, Stree, Kolkata, 2006. Kuntala is currently a Fellow at the Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program at The Australian National University.

This book is all about water. It is authored by academics, some of whom can write in a way lay people can understand. Importantly, all the essays are profusely referenced, so someone wanting to read further knows where to look.