While we celebrate rivers and water as life giving source in India, let us not forget the current status quo and grim picture that the health and rights of rivers are at..We are both celebrating and mourning rivers…The current state of affairs in water management and governance in India is grim because somewhere there is a disconnect among everyone trying to connect and study water in India. 

Looking at problems through single lenses or concepts laden with colonial hangovers such as physics models, volumetric and metric measurements, Command and control approaches…has been the root cause of the state of rivers in India…

Some of the concerned scholars met in a conference on water in Bangalore in the winter of 2019 to bridge these gaps and this is how IYWN was born.   We resonate with the vision of breaking silos by connecting, listening and learning from each other while having respect for the other’s point of view. 

As individuals and a network we want to go beyond our own boundaries to truly seek knowledge in the spirit of problematization and problem solving. This is where we believe engagement with different disciplines becomes important. 

 We at IYWN truly believe in interdisciplinarity, inclusivity and compassion, team science, collaboration and demystifying science communication for each other and for the non-scientific community…. for adequately and holistically defining the problem before seeking solution. Aspects socio-hydrology (or science of water-society) can be redefined for Indian context by bringing in lenses of knowledge co-production, praxis, coloniality, and  through our own respective case study research work done across diverse geographies in India.

 Reflecting on siloed thinking due to hegemony of fewer forms of knowledge over the others, we often ask ourselves, especially for those of us who have engaged in the field for social cultural aspect - Who is the audience for this science and how is this relevant for the residents of the region? For whom is this research being conducted, and for whom is this useful? Whose knowledge counts and whose does not?

 Landscapes are rapidly evolving and archiving the changes became crucial….ethnographers, social scientists and historians record these changes painstakingly and therefore it is important to involve them in current paradigm not for tokenism but as contributors of important worldviews.  

 Pain of seeking answers to these questions led us to come together and deliberate on these concerns… problems are complex and require interdisciplinary engagement in water space in India currently dominated by engineering hydrology and economics…  

 For achieving radical collaboration, we have time and again met and reflected on what should be our principles and values? These apply not just to nurture spaces like IYWN but any collaborative effort, volunteering led initiatives or collectives we may want to nurture in future for serving rivers and studying water…

Like any institution, IYWN also runs on certain values, goals, visions and structural form. We have conducted thoughtful reflective exercises, conversations around institutional structures and we invite you to reflect together with us on following our vision and values . 

We believe that in a gentle way you can shake the world…

Our core values are cultivating authenticity, fearlessness and reflexiveness, growth mindset and moving slowly to create ripple effects ….

We have also deliberated on what it might take to envision a different kind of space let's say from existing rigid bureaucratic institutions that we have borrowed from our colonial past 

We have made conscious effort at IYWN to NOT giving it a rigid structure….as one of our mentors rightly said that science does not happen in committees, based on above principles and values we have kept it largely fluid, adaptable, transformative, organic space with scope for spontaneity, creativity and as fertile ground of ideas that can spark mobilization.

Here we also want to emphasise acknowledging aspcets of norms and value systems explicitly in governnace systems to become aware of them and therefore envision new plural strcutures and frameworks on water governance. 

As active care givers, energisers and initiators we have shown up time and again to continue to nurture and maintain IYWN as safe space… for us to drop guards and truly engage in the spirit of learning and push each other out of our comfort zones and learn a new disciplinary language…we believe this can really help in envisioning a different future or path for philosophy, science and practice of water in India... 

One thing which connects all of us here at the panel and in the audience is the pain of seeking truth. Through research, activism or journalism we are seeking to understand the reality in our own ways… 

Through this upcoming discussion in the panel we want to draw the attention of Early Career Researchers and students that we should learn from each others’ domains and create synergy for holistic knowledge generation and solution creation .

As the saying goes “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.`` We want to emphasize on coming together and encourage working together and team spirit”

As we move forward we will try and develop collective understanding on various aspects of water in the Indian context like youth, gender, mental health and society braided with sensibilities around rivers, wetlands, groundwater, lakes, springs and try and reconnect in an aware manner…