̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Eszter Kovacs

Cambridge-designed curriculum teaches schoolchildren about water scarcity and climate activism

sc604 — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 08:00:00 +0000

‘Pani Pahar – the Water Curriculum’ was jointly developed by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Hearth Education Advisors, a division of Canta Consultants LLP. It is designed for students between the ages of 9 and 15, and is now freely available to students, teachers and schools. ̽��ֱ��aim of the curriculum is to engage students in experiential learning and to instil in them a sense of responsibility towards water conservation.

̽��ֱ��curriculum has grown out of ‘Pani, Pahar – Waters of the Himalayas’, a collaborative research project between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, ̽��ֱ��Centre for Ecology Development and Research in India (CEDAR) and Southasia Institute for Advanced Studies in Nepal (SIAS). ̽��ֱ��project explores the changing landscapes and escalating water crises of the Indian Himalayas. It combines academic research led by Professor Bhaskar Vira and Dr Eszter Kovacs from Cambridge’s Department of Geography with contemporary imagery by photojournalist Toby Smith, which has been exhibited in the UK and India.

̽��ֱ��curriculum aims to help students understand water resources and sustainability and how these are impacted by climate change. ̽��ֱ��detailed lesson plans encourage reflection and research on the human causes of water scarcity, and some of the effects of environmental change on humans and our shared resources. It also helps students understand the meaning of activism, recognise some of the challenges associated with activism, and begin to associate activism with the needs and issues of their school.

“These school materials are designed to allow young people, who are highly mobilised through the school strikes for climate, to develop a critical engagement with these issues, with learning resources and educational materials that are targeted at different stages of the secondary school curriculum,” said Vira. “We wanted to show the links between our research on water scarcity and broader concerns about environmental change and crises.”

̽��ֱ��curriculum has three sets, one for each level, each involving a 10-hours contact time with the students. ̽��ֱ��curriculum is targeted at students of junior, middle and senior level.

̽��ֱ��curriculum was launched in India earlier this week, although Vira says it could easily be incorporated into the school systems of other countries, including the UK.

Funding for the research project and exhibition was provided by the UK’s Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, which was a joint initiative of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Funding was also provided by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account. ̽��ֱ��Oxonian India Foundation funded the graphic design of the curriculum materials.

Students and teachers across India now have free access to a new curriculum on water security and sustainability, co-developed by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which incorporates engagement with climate change and climate activism into their lessons.

These school materials are designed to allow young people to develop a critical engagement with these issues

Bhaskar Vira

Photo by mrjn Photography on Unsplash

Pouring water on person's hands

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Opinion: How the UK and India can lead the development of ecologically smart cities

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 15:23:56 +0000

British Prime Minister Theresa May is visiting India on her first significant overseas visit outside the EU – and there is real interest in how it could be a harbinger of Britain’s post-Brexit future. Analysts are cautious about any major breakthroughs or significant trade deals, especially given strained relations between the UK and India over issues of immigration, which affect students and professionals in particular.

But part of the UK’s agenda is to work bilaterally with India on a number of areas of mutual interest at the UK-India Tech Summit. Discussions will include the technological possibilities for “smart cities”, an area that has been identified by the UK delegation as a major focus for the event. This also resonates with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high profile smart cities initiative, launched last year.

Plans focus on making these urban settlements technologically-enabled, to ensure connectivity and communication using the latest information technologies. But what is missing is a sense of how cities may also be “ecologically smart” by securing the essential needs of their inhabitants – particularly clean air, especially important in smog-hit Delhi, and drinking water. It is also important to recognise that “ecological smartness” must include an understanding of the interests, aspirations and current circumstances of the different groups that live in these places.

Bidur town in Nepal, facing pressures after the 2015 earthquake reduced water flows

Water wisdom

Over the past three years, a project jointly funded by the UK Department for International Development, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, has investigated the ways in which people living in and around six small towns in the Western Himalaya access water through a diversity of sources. These range from springs to piped supply, and the project also examined the sustainability challenges faced by these sources.

Through these multiple and far-ranging case studies in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Nepal, the team highlighted important lessons relevant to understanding water supply and how it is used and sourced in the urbanising hills. It has also outlined the policy options for securing water supplies for the needs of these hill residents.

Nainital, a tourist town in Uttarakhand, which faces severe water shortage during the summer tourist season

There are a number of key lessons that emerge from this project, which provide helpful guidance on how to make all cities ecologically, as well as technologically, “smart”. These are:

̽��ֱ��importance of critical water zones. ̽��ֱ��long-term sustainability of water sources is essential for the maintenance and growth of urban settlements. Urban planning and development occurs within city boundaries – but we must also proactively identify, manage and protect the critical water zones – the areas that are essential for the maintenance and regeneration of water flows across all landscapes, and which are often under threat due to rapid urban expansion, encroachment, changes in land use and deforestation.

Inequality and the politics of water distribution. Within towns, cities and surrounding rural settlements, water is highly unequally distributed. Access is determined by a range of historical and socio-economic factors – and negotiations and conflicts around water access, distribution and quality between up- and downstream settlements characterise life in the hills. ̽��ֱ��diversion and appropriation of water to urban areas could create new conflicts – and we need to understand them.

Local preferences and diverse water strategies. Households in the hills depend on multiple water sources, complementary to piped water connections. This is to do with cultural preferences – such as a belief that spring water in the mountains is sweeter – and risk management, due to the unreliability of municipal supplies. This continued preference for traditional sources alongside technological innovations should inform interventions to improve water availability, especially in small towns.

Rajgarh in Himachal Pradesh, a rapidly growing small town which transports water through a 18km pipeline across mountainous terrain

Large infrastructure decisions and management choices. States and donors are increasingly developing top-down, large-investment infrastructure projects to supply water in mountain areas. These so-called “solutions” don’t always consider the full range of possible options – especially those that are more local, small-scale and relevant to those they serve.

Multiple overlapping institutions for water supply. Water supply systems to address the needs of small towns are adopting new and varied governance structures. Donor and state-led systems should engage with local people and institutions both up and downstream, to ensure that development is useful to the communities it affects.

Decision-making and research in the hills often takes place with little access to data, as most of the areas do not have long term monitoring and records. In such contexts, different forms of knowledge are required – these include local wisdom, experience over generations, expert opinion, as well as more innovative approaches to address data gaps (such as modelling). As India and the UK look to each other for areas of mutual dialogue, a focus on ecological smartness might provide a unique opportunity for harnessing the considerable wealth of research on these issues in both countries, as well as responding to the challenges that both India and the UK face as they become increasingly urbanised.

̽��ֱ��dialogue around technology involving Britain and India must expand to include the importance of finding ways for living well and sustainably in the rapidly urbanising 21st century.

Bhaskar Vira, Reader in Political Economy at the Department of Geography and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College; Director, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Eszter Kovacs, Postdoctoral Researcher in Conservation, Agriculture and Water Management Policy and Practice, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

Bhaskar Vira and Eszter Kovacs (Department of Geography and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute) discuss how lessons learned about water management in Nepal and India can guide how cities can be made "ecologically smart".

Bhaskar Vira

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Not a drop to drink

sc604 — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:00:21 +0000

Nainital is picture perfect: lying in a lush green valley in India’s ‘Lake District’, the town sits on a crescent-shaped lake, surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. Its picturesque location makes it a hugely popular destination for domestic and foreign visitors: each year, Nainital’s population increases fivefold due to the influx of tourists, placing huge strains on the town’s resources, including the water supply.

It’s not just tourists that are contributing to the strain, however. For years, Nainital has been plagued by illegal construction, which has been affecting its ability to supply water. ̽��ֱ��main lake in Nainital is connected to a smaller lake via an underground channel, and together they supply most of the town’s water. ̽��ֱ��smaller lake remains dry for just over half the year, but when it fills again during the monsoon, it becomes an important reserve reservoir for the main lake.

But despite a ruling from the Indian government banning development in the dry lake bed and the surrounding area, illegal construction has been relentless, to the point where the smaller lake can no longer store enough water to supply the main lake, and water levels in Nainital are under severe pressure.

“Not being able to supply water is a major liability for any government or local authority,” says Dr Bhaskar Vira of Cambridge’s Department of Geography. “What we’ve been doing is looking at the underpinning science, seeing what the political and social issues might be, and then working with the relevant people who can intervene and make a difference.”

Vira is leading a major research project that is examining the ways in which small towns in hill and mountain regions of South Asia depend on springs, streams and rivers for their supply of water. Vira and his colleagues from the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies in Nepal and the Centre for Ecology Development and Research (CEDAR) in India are looking at six towns – four in India (including Nainital) and two in Nepal – to understand how they are coping with the ever-increasing demand for water. ̽��ֱ��project is part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation programme, which is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK’s Department for International Development.

India is a wet country, but almost all of the rain falls in about two and a half months during the annual monsoon. ̽��ֱ��problem in India is how to safely store and transport water so that it’s available 12 months a year, and distributed evenly throughout the country.

Small towns – those with populations below 100,000 – in the hill regions of India and Nepal have grown rapidly, with very little planning for infrastructure needs, more generally, and water supply, in particular. Across the region, almost half of the urban population in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and in the hill regions of Nepal, live in small towns.

“Many of these towns are looking at what you’d call nature-based solutions – they don’t have the budget to pump water in from 200 miles away,” says Vira, who is working with Dr Eszter Kovacs on the project. “So they’re much more dependent on the water that’s available in their immediate vicinity, and they’re looking at ways they can harness the resources they do have.”

One of the approaches that the researchers are taking is to identify and protect what they call ‘critical water zones’ – places where the springs that ultimately supply many of these towns are recharged. For example, one of the towns (Rajgarh, in Himachal Pradesh) which the researchers are studying has its water source in the Churdhar Wildlife Sanctuary, which not only protects the wildlife, but also protects the water supply, as the trees absorb the water so it doesn’t run off. ̽��ֱ��ultimate benefit is a dual one, since the landscape is protected, but so is the water supply for the town.

“Water is a precious resource, and it’s very rare to find a water source in India that has no other existing users,” says Vira. “So there are always going to be trade-offs; there are always going to be winners and losers when it comes to water in India.” In Rajgarh, water that is being piped from 14 km away to the town is bypassing villages along the way, raising concerns about the water needs of the surrounding rural communities.

In Mussoorie, another popular Uttarakhand tourist town, the team is looking at the dhobi (washing) community, which for about 100 years has washed all of the laundry generated by the local hotels, schools and passing tourists by hand in the local stream. Today, the work of the dhobi is supplemented by washing machines and driers, but much of the washing is still done in the stream, and many people still rely on it for their livelihoods.

About 15 years ago, town authorities needed to increase their water capacity and approached the dhobi community to ‘share’ their water with the town, through the laying of new pipes and construction of a pumping station. Unsurprisingly, they were resistant to the idea. “Eventually, a compromise was reached so that some of the water was left behind for the dhobi to continue washing, but is it working? Was it a fair trade-off, for the town or the dhobi? These are the kinds of issues we’re looking at,” says Vira, who is Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute.

Back in Nainital, the researchers supported local activists who brought a case to the Uttarakhand high court to remove the illegal buildings. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge–CEDAR team also convened expert geologists and hydrologists who made recommendations about how the lake’s water-storing capacity could be restored, which in turn supported the legal case.

“Additionally, through our awareness campaign, we were able to galvanise the local population so they could see the risk that this illegal construction is posing to the community,” says Dr Vishal Singh from CEDAR, one of Vira’s collaborators, who recently spent two months in Cambridge on a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship. “This lake is so important for the region’s sustainability and, for years, construction was allowed to continue despite the fact that it was illegal.”

In mid-July, the high court ordered the formation of two committees: one to mark and demolish the illegal constructions, and another to determine which officials were liable for allowing the construction to happen in the first place.

Singh, who grew up in Nainital, says he’d like to see the dry lake bed returned to what it was when he was a child. “It should be cleaned up and preserved so children can play there in the dry season,” he says. “This lake is so important to Nainital’s identity – let’s preserve it.”

Inset image: Nainital, northern India, faces an ever-increasing demand for water (Ross Huggett).

A major research collaboration is looking at how small towns in the hills of India and Nepal are coping with increasing demand for water: who wins and who loses when resources get scarce?

There are always going to be winners and losers when it comes to water in India

Bhaskar Vira

Carsten Tolkmit

Lonely tap

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-ShareAlike