We all know water is essential for life. Yet in Midwestern U.S., we often take freshwater for granted. Each day we use water for drinking, cleaning, and cooking. But we don’t think twice about where the water comes from, what it takes to get it to us, or whether it is safe to use or drink. In a very real sense, the immediate availability of clean water is a miracle of life in the modern world. But in many places in rural India, freshwater is a scarce resource. Homes do not have running water. Villages do not have a central water supply. The fortunate are able to retrieve water from a nearby source within walking distance. Still, fetching water is a time consuming daily chore. For those without a freshwater source nearby, water poverty means hardship. Hence, in many rural settings in India, the availability of freshwater defines one’s daily life and determines one’s economic well being.
This course is a case study on water poverty in rural India. You will learn firsthand about the freshwater crisis that exists in the Mewat and Alwar Districts, rural agricultural valleys in northern India that are under-developed economically even by India standards. Fresh groundwater is the primary water source for drinking and irrigation in the area. However, this resource is threatened by overuse, increased demand from a growing population, and climatic changes in monsoon rains. During the time in India, student participants will be engaged in projects that investigate practices aimed at enhancing water supplies. Through these activities, and the interactions with our local partner and the population in Mewat and Alwar, students learn how culture, economics, and the environment shape this region and determine the sustainability of water resources. To learn more about experiences offered by this course, view a video created by students participants in the 2019 course from the University of Iowa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmiU80-Xbhk .
Partner Organization: S.M. Sehgal Foundation www.smsfoundation.org
Article about 2022/2023 Program: https://engineering.purdue.edu/GEP/news/2023/2023-0316-India
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
This is a course for undergraduate students with an interest in water and real-world sustainability issues. Students come from different disciplines and bring different perspectives–from physical sciences and engineering, to sustainability studies and socio-economic sciences. Each student is expected to participate in group and individual projects activities (which are often tailored to an individual student’s interests and skills). Our projects involve field work designed to test hypotheses, and subsequent data analysis. At the end of the course, students will make a short presentation to share what was learned; will also receive feedback about the impact of our project activities from Sehgal Foundation personnel, and hear about its significance to their efforts to address the ongoing freshwater crisis.
Course work on projects is complemented with afternoon and weekend cultural activities.