Economy in Water
Economy in Water
Felix Padel
Dangerous Water: Rivers, Lakes and Sovereign Ecologies in the Eastern Himalayas
Alex Aisher
Big dams are always launched with lavish promises of ‘development’, yet the reality always seems to involve mass displacement and devastation of fertile regions, with water snatched from villagers and restricted to corporate works. Industrialisation repeatedly pollutes water sources and rivers, as in Vedanta’s copper mine tailings poisoning the River Kafue that harmed thousands in Zambia, for which it was recently convicted by the UK’s Supreme Court. We know that water is key to life on earth, how it is increasingly privatised, and how plastic and industrial waste pollutes our oceans. But how aware are we of the assault on underground aquifers? Are large areas of the earth surface actually drying out, in Australia, North India, the US, China, Middle East…? Could humans relearn how to be economic in using and conserving water?
The talk is part of Understanding Environmental Crisis series. A series of 5 seminar talks by Felix Padel and guest speakers at the Centre for World Environmental History - Activists and Academia Forum CWEH, University of Sussex, January-April 2020, conceived as an interaction with participants, who are encouraged to bring examples from their own work and experience.