Gender and Sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America

7. Meaningful Waters: Women, Development, and Sustainability along the Bhagirathi Ganges

142 chapter seven Meaningful Waters Women, Development, and Sustainability along the Bhagirathi Ganges Georgina Drew The need for gender inclusion in debates over resource management and sustainability has long been recognized. Academics, environmentalists, and development practitioners, among others, are working to increase awareness of and attention to the gender dimensions of resource concerns around the world. This work has become more critical as development activities and climate change jeopardize access to life-giving sources such as water. While the physical hardships that scarcity exerts on women must be addressed, the nonmaterial implications should not be overlooked. This chapter argues for a broadening of the notion of sustainability to include the continuity of resources and livelihoods as well as the diverse relationships between humans and the environment. Although scholars and activists have made similar calls, I contextualize this argument in debates over the management of the Bhagirathi River, commonly recognized as the primary tributary of the holy Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas. As I show here, a holistic concept of sustainability opens up a range of possibilities for the engagement of gender perspectives on development and ecological change. This can lead to a more nuanced approach to gender inclusive collaboration in environmental praxis. Culture, Ecology, and Sustainability on the Bhagirathi Ganges Flowing some 1,560 miles and supporting more than 400 million people, the Ganges River is recognized as one of India’s most important freshwater Meaningful Waters฀ •฀ 143 sources (Chapman and Thompson 1995). Direct and indirect users rely on waters from the Ganges for a range of domestic, agricultural, commercial , and industrial uses. In addition to the river’s physical significance, the Ganges has many cultural and religious facets. For millennia, people seeking purification and spiritual guidance have worshiped the river. This reverence is established in Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (Darian 1978). It is also embodied in daily practice. Devotees consider the river to be the Goddess Ganga, and they confer upon her the status of a mother. As a sign of respect and a literal identification, the river is called Ma Ganga (Mother Ganges). Unfortunately, the health of this multifaceted water resource is in jeopardy . According to scientific reports, the Himalayan glaciers that contribute to surface flows are receding significantly (IPCC 2007), and rivers such as the Ganges have already become seasonal (Immerzeel et al. 2010). While controversy persists over the short-term implications of climate change, it is likely that environmental shifts such as glacial melt will contribute to long-term water stress. This will amplify problems in a nation that, in 2003, ranked 133 of 182 countries for water availability per capita (UNESCO 2003). Within India’s borders, great inequities persist between those that have access to adequate, potable water supplies and those that do not, and these disparities are highly gendered (Lahiri-Dutt 2006). For this reason, it is important to attend to the concerns of Himalayan women, many of them part of India’s rural and semi-urban poor, living along the Bhagirathi Valley where the primary tributary of the Ganges flows.1 In this region, gender vulnerabilities to shifting water availability are exacerbated by current approaches to water resource management that include the proliferation of hydroelectric dams. Within the context of shifting water resource availability and development along the revered and symbolic Ganges River, the concept of sustainability is inadequately summarized by the most commonly used definition, from the Brundtland Commission’s 1987 report. Their widely quoted notion entails enacting development practices that meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own (Brundtland et al. 1987). While this is one aspect of sustainability , it does not encapsulate the full range of human needs and desires that vary according to cultural belief and religious systems. In its intent to stress the continuity of the human race, it also makes the anthropogenic error of understating the human-nature relationships around which civilizations are organized and that support life while informing worldviews, cosmologies , and behaviors. 144฀ •฀ Georgina฀Drew This chapter seeks to engage a holistic approach to sustainability that encapsulates diverse cultural beliefs and practices. It is grounded in the conviction that human relationships and concern for natural resources are important for policy formation because modalities of action in relation to the environment are intimately linked to perception (Ingold 2000). In this effort, I employ insights gained during ethnographic research along the river’s Himalayan...