An increasing recognition of the need to understand the complex systems in the health sector has raised the demand for an examination of water and health from a systemic perspective. Analyzing the various discourses on the subject, the volume revolves around this central question: What are the linkages between water and health in South Asia?
The interlacing of water and health exists wherever human health is adversely affected, directly or indirectly, by changes in the quality and quantity of water. These adverse effects are linked with poverty, environment, and infrastructure in the overall socio-political and economic-developmental context.
The book looks at the linkage between water and health in an integrated manner, and is not based on the ′absence of disease′ syndrome. The curative, preventive, and adaptive aspects of the public-health problem have also been delved into. Among other areas, the articles deal with water and health with reference to water supply, sanitation, water pollution, natural disasters, urbanization, and industrialization.
Armed with the latest research and case studies from South Asia, the book calls for a comprehensive understanding and better integration of water and health issues in the region.
Interlacing Water and Human Health is the third volume in the Water in South Asia Series published by SAGE and South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs).
Anjal Prakash is the Executive Director at SaciWATERs, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies based at Hyderabad in Southern India. He is also the Project Director of ‘Water Security in Peri-Urban South Asia,’ a project funded by IDRC. He has worked extensively on the issues of groundwater management, gender, natural resource management, and water supply and sanitation. Having an advanced degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, and PhD in Social and Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, Dr Prakash has been working in the area of policy research, advocacy, capacity building, knowledge development, networking and implementation of large-scale environmental development projects. Before joining SaciWATERs, Dr Prakash worked with the policy team of WaterAid India, New Delhi, where he handled research and implementation of projects related to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Dr Prakash is the author of The Dark Zone: Groundwater Irrigation, Politics and Social Power in North Gujarat, published by Orient Longman. His recent edited books are Interlacing Water and Health: Case Studies from South Asia (2012) by SAGE Publications and Water Resources Policies in South Asia (2013) by Routledge. He is presently co-editing books on case studies of IWRM and Peri-Urban Water Security Issues to be published by Routledge and Oxford University Press, respectively.
V S Saravanan is Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. He specializes in understanding the linkages between urbanisation/globalisation, agriculture and human health in the fast growing economies of developing countries through the sector of water resources management. He has interdisciplinary qualifications from prestigious universities in India, United Kingdom and Australia. He draws on theories of integrated water resources management, new institutionalism in social science (rational-choice, organisational, historical and natural resource institutionalism) and systems approach to analyse risk from global environmental change on water resources and its implications on human health. His favourite topics for research include analyzing power dynamics, policy processes, and spatial scales for water management, which he draws from his research experiences in South Asia and Central Asia.
Jayati Chourey is Senior Fellow (Education and Networking) with SaciWATERs Secunderabad, India. She is also responsible for coordinating the SaciWATERs–CapNet Network (SCaN). She holds a PhD in Ecosystem-based Water Resources Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal (Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun), India. The focus areas of her activities are water, ecosystems, health and livelihoods. She has been an Environment Equity and Justice Partnership (EEJP) Fellow, supported by Ford Foundation, during 2005–06. She has worked with ENVID Group, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India, for Ecological and Economics Research Network (EERN) coordinated by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. She is associated with various environmental and social development forums.
