CULTURELAB
The stuff of life
When it comes to water, good science can act as both a tool and
a weapon in the hands of ordinary people, finds Fred Pearce
India, to its natural world and Nature to The Wall Street Journal,
A River Runs Again: Indias natural
those who want to protect the shows a rare gift in her ability
world in crisis, from the barren cliffs
country from breakneck to combine personal but
of Rajasthan to the farmlands of
industrialisation under its uncontrived field reporting
Karnataka by Meera Subramanian,
premier, Narendra Modi. with the cultural sensitivity of
Public Affairs, $26.99
Although its narrative is lyrical a returning daughter of India
The Last Drop: The politics of water
and heartfelt, the book is also an and the critical faculties of
by Mike Gonzalez and Marianella Yanes,
ode to science good science that someone confident in the science.
Pluto Press, 14.99
respects natural processes rather When she reminds us that the
Connecting the Drops: A citizens
than seeking to subjugate them. villagers have better knowledge
guide to protecting water resources
The johads that revived the about water conservation in their
by Karen Schneller-McDonald, Cornell
Arvari river are one element in areas than most engineers, but
University Press, $24.95
a nationwide movement that is the present system never seeks
THE Arvari river in Indias turning its back on Western water their views and government
Rajasthan desert had been dry technologies like large dams, and officers dismiss them as
for decades. The fields along its focusing on traditional Indian illiterates, these words ring true
banks were parched, the people practices, such as catching the because they describe the local
were leaving. Then a local youth, rain locally and keeping it on knowledge, the hydrology and
Kanhaiya Lal Gurjar, began the politics with equal skill.
recruiting village women to dig Villagers know more about She never lets the romantic
small dams johads in the local water conservation trump realism. Harvesting
seasonal streams that once fed than most engineers, but rainfall in Rajasthan ticks many
the river. The dams held back the no one seeks their views boxes for her, bringing local
monsoon rains, which percolated control over water to people
underground. Local wells began the land. It is working: across previously reliant on government
to return to life and, as if by Rajasthan, 12,000 johads and canals and tankers. But she knows
magic, the river itself returned. similar structures bring water that downstream dams have
This simple story of local to fields and communities left sometimes suffered when water is
environmental intervention is high and dry by big engineering. held back. There is only so much
the centrepiece of A River Runs Subramanian, whose fluid water to be caught, after all.
Again, US journalist Meera writing has appeared in Subramanian is open to being
Subramanians ode to her native everything from the journal surprised by her interviewees.
On one occasion, she discovers
that many rural Indian women
enjoy the apparently arduous
journey out of their villages to
collect firewood and water each
morning. It is the one time that
they are free of the men.
In five essays, painstakingly
researched in long journeys to
find the small, the local, the
indigenous at work across India,
Subramanian roams far beyond
DIETER TELEMANS/PANOS
the issue of water. She explores
PETE MCBRIDE/NGS
the battle between organic
farmers and proponents of
intensive farming. Who can best
feed a fast-growing population
46 | NewScientist | 3 October 2015
For more books and arts coverage, visit newscientist.com/culturelab
Stirring the waters: in the US, water
from mining run-off can pollute
(left), and fracking gathers protests
(right); daily wash in India (far left)
containing more undernourished
people than any other nation?
She interviews dozens of Indian
women in their kitchens and
exposes the scandal of how
FRANCES M. ROBERTS/PHOTOSHOT
clean cooking stoves were
mis-sold to billions of the worlds
poorest people.
Her feminist politics shine
through in her analysis of
the power play behind Indias
assault on population growth
in places like Bihar, which she
dubs a dismal place to be a in Sudan, and that millions have
woman. And her skills as a nature been poisoned by arsenic in water
reporter combine with her love along the Indus river, rather than
and knowledge of raptors in the Ganges. There is a good book
illuminating the strange story to be written about the collision
of Indias vanishing vultures. between globalisation and water
Subramanians heart is in as a public good. But this ill-
rural India and the continuing informed rant is not it.
relevance of its traditions. She After the high idealism of
yearns for a future in which small Subramanian and the low politics
remains beautiful. India, home of Gonzalez, Karen Schneller-
of the god of small things, is the McDonalds Connecting the
perfect place for the model of the Drops feels like a cold shower
micro to emerge, she says. But of American realism. This
her optimism and idealism are citizens guide to protecting
rooted in rigour, science and a water resources explains, in
humanistic approach that drives terms that suburbanites can
her stories of day-to-day life grasp, why their local streams,
across that country. This is ponds and wetlands matter, and
reporting of the highest standard. how to defeat housing developers
Sadly, The Last Drop is rather or fracking engineers who want
different. It is not, as the subtitle to drain, pollute, culvert or cover
suggests, about the politics of them over.
water. Instead, it is a political The author provides this
template imposed on water. kind of advice for a living in New
Mike Gonzalez, a Trotskyite Yorks Hudson Valley, where she
professor and biographer of is an environmental consultant
Hugo Chavez, and his co-author, working with community groups.
Venezuelan journalist Marianella Much of what she offers is specific
Yanes, seem interested only in to the US, but her style is inclusive.
critiquing capitalism by blaming And her advice on how to call
the commodification of water out officials, politicians and
and the privatisation of its corporations who insist their
supply for the ills of an industry decisions cannot be contested
that rather confounding their because they are based on
argument is still largely in science is of universal value.
public hands. Science, she knows, is a tool and
Their thesis is not helped by a weapon, but rarely a policy.
factual inaccuracies. For example,
in the space of two pages, the Fred Pearce is a consultant for
authors state that the Nile rises NewScientist
3 October 2015 | NewScientist | 47
