International Symposium “Precarious Water Futures and the End(s) of World(s) – an Integrative Dialogue Across Disciplines and Societies”
Date: 13–16 November 2024
Location: Multipurpose Hall, Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre, New Delhi (India)
The symposium is organized by the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University, Germany, in collaboration with the M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP), New Delhi, India, the School of Environmental Sciences (SES), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, the Rachel Carson Center (RCC), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, and the South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, Germany.
Water is essential for biological life on our planet and has played a key role in society and culture throughout history. It is used for direct consumption cleaning, transportation, agriculture, industry, crafts, warfare, and religion. An end to available water would mean an end to the world as we know it. Climate change, arguably one of the most significant existential risks to humanity, affects the water cycle in multiple and complex ways, e.g., accessibility of drinking water, pollution, rising sea levels, changing rain patterns, flooding and drought. These may cause water disputes resulting from conflicts of interest between divergent public and private stakeholders or states. Water is at the heart of the identity of many peoples. It is at the core of religious narratives and practices. The existential role of water is mirrored in a wide range of further cultural representations in literature, music, movies or games – ranging from drought-stricken post-apocalyptic wastelands to all-encompassing floods.
All these perspectives on water are currently debated in many conferences – but mostly separated by disciplines and methodologies, which poses problems to integrative solutions. This international symposium, brings together scholars of the humanities, social and natural sciences, and engineering from Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Australia, in order to explore the complex and intertwined interrelationships of water emergencies in times of climate crisis and the related looming end(s) of world(s) by responding to questions such as the following:
- How are water distribution and water quality affected by water scarcity due to climate change?
- What are possible ethical or justice implications of water scarcity regarding issues such as water availability, indigenous perspectives, the situation of vulnerable groups, promoting ethics and justice facing the end of the world, international frameworks, etc.
- Which technical and societal solutions can counteract water scarcity in countries affected strongly by climate change and what are their implications, limitations, challenges, etc.?
- In which way do water emergencies (e.g. desertification, water scarcity, sea level rise) affect habitability?
- What insights can be gained from history regarding water emergencies?
- From Kadvi Hawa to the Great Flood and Mad Max– how are water emergencies depicted in different cultural and pop-cultural settings?
- How can interdisciplinary research contribute to a better understanding and policy-making regarding different forms of water emergencies?
Programme
Wednesday, 13 November 2024 Location: Multipurpose Hall, Kamaladevi Complex, IIC
6–6:30 PM Opening Address and Introduction: Rolf Scheuermann and Suboor Bakht
6:30–7:30 PM Fireside Chat with Experts “The Aquatic Polycrisis – Precarious Water Futures and the Ends of Worlds” With Sara Ahmed, Jörg Gengnagel, Annette Hornbacher, Rolf Scheuermann, and Anna-Maria Walter; Moderation: Suboor Bakht
8 PM Banquet
Thursday, 14 November 2024 Location: Multipurpose Hall, Kamaladevi Complex
10–11:30 AM Panel “Jal Jangal Jeevan Jameen: Understanding Indigenous Water Dynamics through Interdisciplinary Studies” – Part I, Panel Chair: Shantanu Majee
- Rahi Soren “Building draught resilience through revival of indigenous water conservation practices in Rarh Bengal”
- Sarmistha Saha “Overcoming water scarcity – Indigenous knowledge and sustainable water conservation practices in lateritic South West Bengal”
- Shantanu Majee “Singing the Blues: The water cult and Hydro-performativity in the Cultural History of Bankura and Purulia”
11:30–12 PM Break
12–1:30 PM Panel “Jal Jangal Jeevan Jameen: Understanding Indigenous Water Dynamics through Interdisciplinary Studies – Part II, Panel Chair: Rahi Soren
- Alaa Attiah Mitwaly “Sinai foretellers: Invisible waterways, warfare, and wayfarers”
- Nisha Paliwal & Sachin “Local ecological knowledge and water management in the Thar desert”
- Annette Hornbacher “(Im)purities of holy water: Bali’s water crisis and the limits of ideology”
1:30–3 PM Lunch Break
3–5 PM Panel “Water Scarcity and the Social Dimension” – Part I, Panel Chair: Rolf Scheuermann
- Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah “Aquatic performances as decolonial practice in Africa and beyond”
- Farhat Naz & George Kodimattam Joseph “Water as a tool for Caste: Tanker Economy and water access struggles in Western rural India”
- Mona Das “‘Everyday Apocalypse’: Filling water from a DJB tanker”
- Rita Brara Mukhopadhyay “Weighing her fown: The Anatamopolitics of women varrying headloads of water”
5–5:30 PM Break
5:30–7:00 PM Panel “Water Scarcity and the Social Dimension” – Part II, Panel Chair: Rita Brara Mukhopadhyay
- Tarun “Fluvial Landscapes, blurry boundaries, and the making of places in the anthropocene”
- Soomrit Chattopadhyay &Yakabal Sheikh “Integrative analysis of water demand management in urban areas of Pune: Economic, community, and environmental perspectives”
- Aarushie Sharma “Water’s evil twin: Ethnographic reflections on sewage & sanitation infrastructures in Delhi, India”
Friday, 15 November 2024 Location: Multipurpose Hall, Kamaladevi Complex
9:30–11:30 AM Panel “Water Emergencies and their Religious Perspectives”, Panel Chair: Paolo Vignolo
- Rolf Scheuermann “Buddhist strategies for coping with water emergencies”
- Paolo Vignolo “Mapping the Great Flood. The religious background in the cartographies of sea level rise”
- Eva Andrea Krannich “The Imagination of sea-level rise and mythology in native Hawaiian storytelling”
- C. Upendra Rao “Science of water as depicted in Vedic Literature”
11:30 AM –12 PM Break
12–1:30 PM Panel “Hydrosocial assertions: Curating the saga of tidalectics through transdisciplinary water research”, Part I, Panel Chair: Sara Ahmed
- Punyasloke Bhadury “Exploring the science of mangroves with coastal communities for global equity”
- Jenia Mukherjee “Co(lab)oratory experiments and endeavours: Addressing water precarity through everyday living experience in transboundary Sundarbans”
- Amrita DasGupta “Time is ticking: A Future for the drowning sex workers of the Sundarbans coastline”
1:30–3:30 PM Lunch Break
3:30–5 PM Panel “Hydrosocial assertions: Curating the saga of tidalectics through transdisciplinary water research”, Part II Panel Chair: Sara Ahmed
- Turzo Nicholas Mondal & Annu Jalais “ Endangered species in sacred waters: the charismatic aquatic animals of Bengali Sufi saints”
- Megnaa Mehtta “Lifelines or imposed lines: Situating seawalls historically from the Bengal delta to the Venice lagoon”
- Discussion Round on the Sundarbans
5–5:30 PM Break
5:30–6:15 PM Special Lecture by Friederike Reents “Everything Flows. The necessity of blue humanities”
Evening Dinner (Optional, tbd)
Saturday, 16 November 2024 Location: Multipurpose Hall, Kamaladevi Complex
10 AM–12 PM Panel “Water Emergency and Landscape”, Panel Chair: N. Janardhana Raju
- Gideon Mathson “Water and the flood: Perspectives on the 2013 floods in the district of Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand”
- Prabhat Kumar “Rinjal-Dhanjal: Lack and surplus of water, 1950-1975”
- Anushiya Shrestha & Salu Basnet “Global aspirations and local realities: Precarious water security in Nepal Himalayas”
- Walter, Anna-Maria “Engineering resilience – Past and present techniques to grow glaciers”
12–12:30 PM Conclusion of the Symposium by the Organizer
12:30–1:30 PM Lunch
Sunday, 17 November 2024
Excursions (tbd)
Academic Committee
- Thomas Meier, CAPAS, Heidelberg University
- Ute Hüsken, SAI, Heidelberg University
- Marcus Nüsser, SAI, Heidelberg University
- Shail Mayaram, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
- N. Janardhana Raju, JNU
- Rita Brara, Ashoka University
- Jörg Gengnagel, University of Würzburg
- Suboor Bakht, Heidelberg University Office for South Asia
- Rolf Scheuermann, CAPAS, Heidelberg University
Technical Support: Gregor Kohl
Outreach Project Management: Melanie LeTouze
Download the Programme

OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
sukritimanocha (October 21, 2024). International Symposium “Precarious Water Futures and the End(s) of World(s) – an Integrative Dialogue Across Disciplines and Societies”. ICAS:MP. Retrieved March 18, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/12je3