The Water Data Podcast

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, hydrogeologist and co-founder of ACWADAM, about groundwater science in India – from basalt aquifers and rural irrigation to springshed revival in the Himalayas and participatory groundwater management.
This episode was recorded in November 2025 on the sidelines of a two-day event celebrating the life and work of Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, marking his recognition with the 2025 International Water Prize by the University of Oklahoma. Because the conversation was long and deeply insightful, we’re releasing it in two parts – this is Part 2.
In this episode, Dr. Kulkarni explains how participatory groundwater management (PGWM) evolved in India, and why aquifers must be treated as common pool resources. He shares field-based examples of PGWM “models” in practice — from borewell bans and drinking water protection zones to borehole pooling and crop planning. He also reflects on the biggest external forces shaping groundwater outcomes, especially energy policy and market incentives. 
Through this conversation, he explains why urban groundwater remains “hidden”, and why cities must treat recharge as a public service, not just an individual mandate. Finally, he highlights the major unanswered questions in groundwater today — contamination and depletion — and why groundwater science will always remain a field science.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-himanshu-kulkarni-pt2/
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! 
Recording by Vedant Ambrule and Tippana Chaitanya. Video editing by Nabina Chakraborty. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar and Kanishka Goyal. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, hydrogeologist and co-founder of ACWADAM, about groundwater science in India – from basalt aquifers and rural irrigation to springshed revival in the Himalayas and participatory groundwater management.
This episode was recorded in November 2025 on the sidelines of a two-day event celebrating the life and work of Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, marking his recognition with the 2025 International Water Prize by the University of Oklahoma. Because the conversation was long and deeply insightful, we’re releasing it in two parts – this is Part 1.
In this episode, Dr. Kulkarni traces the origins of his groundwater journey – from early memories of the first wells and springs he encountered, to studying geology and being mentored by an exceptional hydrogeology teacher Vilasrao Salunkhe. He then takes us into his landmark field research in Pabal in rural Maharashtra, where detailed well surveys and long-term measurements revealed how basalt aquifers behave, why groundwater availability varies sharply across the same landscape, and how farming decisions around wells, pumps, and crops change when water availability and markets shift together. Along the way, the conversation unpacks key hydrogeology ideas in accessible ways, including layered basalt aquifers, heterogeneity, anisotropy, transmissivity, storage, and why some wells are productive only seasonally while others sustain longer.
They also discuss groundwater decline, cropping pattern changes, watershed development, spring revival programmes, community water governance, urban groundwater challenges, and why trust and local knowledge cannot be scaled like physical infrastructure. The episode reflects on groundwater as a shared commons and introduces the broader arc of Dr. Kulkarni’s work – from the watershed movement and the emerging groundwater crisis to the practice-driven approach that later shaped ACWADAM’s capacity building efforts and participatory groundwater management in India.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-himanshu-kulkarni-pt1/ 
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! 
Recording by Vedant Ambrule and Tippana Chaitanya. Video editing by Nabina Chakraborty. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar and Kanishka Goyal. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.

How can simple models explain the complexity of rivers, landscapes and water systems?  Why does hydrology sometimes struggle to connect theory and reality?
In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Veena Srinivasan speaks with Prof. Hubert Savenije, Emeritus Professor of Hydrology at TU Delft and one of the most influential thinkers in modern hydrological science.
They discuss Hubert’s early journey in hydrology and how intuition shaped his scientific thinking, the importance of embracing uncertainty in water science, and why catchments behave like complex adaptive systems. They explore emergent hydrological behaviour, the limits of top-down and bottom-up modelling approaches, the role of vegetation and root systems in storing water and shaping landscape memory, and the difference between evaporation and transpiration in driving water loss. 
The discussion also covers large-scale water balance patterns such as Budyko curves, the challenges of modelling hydrology under climate change, the risks of over-parameterisation and data-heavy modelling approaches, and practical advice for young researchers on building intuition, spending time in the field, and connecting theory with real-world observation.
This episode offers a rare philosophical and practical perspective on hydrology- bridging theory, observation, and imagination.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-hubert-savenije/
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! 
Recording by Vraj Acharya, Nabina Chakraborty. Video editing by Vraj Acharya. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.

When a lake turns green with algae, or nitrate shows up in drinking water, the most obvious question would be: Why can’t we fix this quickly?
In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Veena Srinivasan speaks with Professor Nandita Basu from the University of Waterloo about nitrogen and phosphorus legacies – the hidden nutrient stores in soils, groundwater, and sediments that keep polluting waterways for decades.
They unpack how the Haber-Bosch process transformed agriculture, why nitrogen use efficiency stays low, and how drained agricultural landscapes can rapidly transport nitrates from fields to major river systems and even the Gulf of Mexico. They also explore why phosphorus behaves differently - sticking to soils and sediments, fuelling algal blooms, and creating stubborn feedback loops when lakes turn low-oxygen.

Finally, they discuss what can still be done: turning the ‘easy knobs’ like phosphate in detergents, targeting livestock manure hotspots, using small ponds and wetlands as high-impact interventions, and why India urgently needs far more empirical measurement to diagnose problems and track solutions.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit ________
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! 
Recording by Vraj Acharya, Nabina Chakraborty. Video editing by Vraj Acharya. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.

How do forests shape our water security? Why do rivers need to flow? And what happens to fish, turtles and gharials when dams shut off water?
In this episode, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Jagdish Krishnaswamy to explore the science that connects hydrology, ecology, and the people who depend on India’s rivers and landscapes. From the Western Ghats to the Himalayas, from springs to large reservoirs, this episode dives into decades of pioneering field research, where data collection meets cutting-edge science. 
Jagdish Krishnaswamy joins host Veena Srinivasan on Season 2, Episode 10 of the Water Data Podcast. 
In this episode, they further discuss the complex "sponge" effect of forests in the Western Ghats and how exotic plantations impact water infiltration. They travel to the Eastern Himalayas to understand the drying of springs and the nuances of restoration beyond simple tree planting. The conversation also highlights the concept of "Hungry Water," the critical importance of sediment, and the struggle for survival of the Gharial in the face of flow alterations.
Dr Krishnaswamy is one of India’s most respected ecohydrologists, integrating engineering, statistics, and ecology to understand how water and ecosystems co-evolve. His work has informed restoration, protected species, and reshaped water policy debates in India.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-jagdish-krishnaswamy/
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! 
Recording by Vraj Acharya, Nanditha Gogate and Pavan Srinath. Video editing by Nabina Chakraborty. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.