Following Water to Address Complex Societal Problems

Water cuts across disciplines and everyday life. It shapes how cities are built, how agriculture is sustained, how energy and transport systems function, and how communities experience questions of access and justice. At Ahmedabad University, this way of looking at complex problems begins in the Foundation Programme, which is divided into three studies, one of which is Water. The Water Studio introduces students to water as a starting point for examining a challenge from multiple perspectives.

This approach became more evident at Aqualogues 2026 – Water in Education, which brought together academics, practitioners, artists, and students to explore the many ways in which water is understood, experienced, and studied. Their perspectives ranged from community knowledge and ecological responsibility to science, technology, and engineering, reflecting how questions around water cannot be understood through a single discipline.

The event examined sustainable water management and conservation through these interconnected perspectives. It explored the intersections between community wisdom, ecological responsibility, and interdisciplinary education, while also considering how technological shifts have changed the way societies engage with water.

The event further explored water’s connection to groundwater and agriculture, urban infrastructure and flooding, energy generation and transport, and the resources and systems that support technological development. Together, these perspectives pointed to the need for systemic approaches to the socio-economic and environmental challenges created by water scarcity.

Opening the forum was Ramon Magsaysay Awardee and Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Dr Rajendra Singh, known as the Waterman of India and Founder of Tarun Bharat Sangh, who examined the relationship between development, technology, and the natural world through his keynote address. Setting the tone for the two-day event, he spoke of development as a process that need not lead to destruction, degradation or displacement. He highlighted experiential, community-led knowledge to build water structures.

These broader questions also came through in discussions on the changing water landscape of North Gujarat. The shift from traditional ponds and wells to deep borewells can have consequences that extend well beyond access to water, affecting agriculture, livelihoods, and rural economies. Mittal Patel, Founder of Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch, brought this regional context into the conversation, reinforcing the need to understand water as a system closely connected to communities, livelihoods, and social responsibility.

The programme extended these conversations through Water Stories, a documentary and dialogue session with Mallika Sarabhai, alongside plenaries on integrating water into pedagogy. Students also joined practitioner-led conversations and project studios that explored how real-world water challenges can drive learning. The Foundation Challenge and Expo gave students an opportunity to translate these questions into projects of their own.

Aqualogues also facilitated bridging the classroom and practice through student conversations with water practitioners and researchers. In this session, about 400 undergraduate students from the Foundation Programme Water Studio engaged with the Water Experts and presented their learnings for dialogue, feedback and guidance.

Across the programme, water emerged not simply as an academic subject or technical challenge, but as a shared concern connecting people, places, ecosystems and everyday life. By bringing education, research, field practice, cultural expression, and student-led exploration into conversation, Aqualogues 2026, co-hosted with the WforW Foundation, opened new ways of thinking about how we learn about, through and with water.