A lecture by Himanshu Thakkar | Discussant: Ravi Agarwal
Indians historically consider our abundant water resources as embedded in Nature and not as a commodity. Yet we face major water management challenges – from availability to rain water storage. Are we looking at all the options to better manage our resources? Do we have the necessary infrastructure to do so? Himanshu Thakkar discusses these questions in this lecture.
Himanshu Thakkar, an engineer from IIT (Mumbai), is currently coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP). He in the past has been associated with the work of the World Commission on Dams, Narmada Bachao Andolan and Centre for Science and Environment. He has been associated with Water Sector related issues in India for over 25 years.
SANDRP is an informal network working on issues related to rivers, communities and large scale water infrastructure like dams: their environmental and social impacts, their performance, options and issues related to governance of rivers and dams. It was set up 20 years ago.
Ravi Agarwal has an inter-disciplinary practice as an artist, photographer, environmental campaigner, writer and curator. His work explores key contemporary questions of ecology, society, and capital. It has been shown widely, including at the Yinchuan Biennial (2018), Kochi Biennial (2016), the Sharjah Biennial (2013), Documenta XI (2002), etc. He co-curated the Yamuna-Elbe project, an Indo German twin city public art and ecology project (2011), and Embrace our Rivers an Indo- European project in Chennai (2018). His work is in several private and public collections, and he has served on many art juries and committees.
Ravi is also the founder director of the environmental NGO Toxics Link which has pioneered work in waste and chemicals in India. He serves on policy and regulatory committees and Boards and writes extensively on sustainability issues and has co-edited several books. He was awarded the UN Special Recognition Award for Chemical Safety in 2008 and the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurship in 1997. His training has been in engineering and management.
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