The Water Data Podcast

What can 25 years of observing the same watershed teach us about groundwater? Can intensive pumping make groundwater deeper in valleys than on hills? Can decades of depletion be reversed by just a few exceptionally wet years? And how does fertilizer applied at the surface end up contaminating groundwater tens of metres below?

Professor Shekhar Muddu joins host Veena Srinivasan on the Water Data Podcast for a deep dive into the Kabini Critical Zone Observatory and what decades of field measurements have revealed about groundwater, agriculture, pollution and climate.

The conversation traces the evolution of the...

What does it actually take to provide safe and affordable drinking water for everyone? And if households must store, filter, boil or buy water before they can safely drink it, can we really say the water system is providing a service?

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Professor Isha Ray, formerly of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, about drinking water access, affordability, inequality and the hidden labour involved in making water safe.

Drawing on research from India and California, Isha explains why...

How does saving water create a financial crisis for the utilities that supply it? And why do cities continue building water systems based on laws, infrastructure, and climate assumptions that are no longer relevant?

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, Newsha Ajami joins host Veena Srinivasan to unpack the hidden risks inside modern water systems- from outdated water rights and groundwater overuse to drought, demand management, decentralised reuse, and climate resilience.

Newsha Ajami is an Iranian-American hydrologist, civil engineer, and environmental policy expert. Her work spans sustainable urban water management, the water-energy-food nexus...

What does it mean to measure water for the entire planet? Who collects the data behind SDG 6? And how do numbers from hundreds of countries become a global picture of water security, sanitation, wastewater, ecosystems and governance?

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, Dr Maggie Kossida , from the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 joins host Veena Srinivasan.

Dr Kossida helps coordinate one of the world’s most ambitious water-data efforts: bringing together information from 190+ countries to understand how the world is progressing on Sustainable Development Goal 6- clean water and sanitation for al...

What if technology was designed not to manage communities, but to strengthen their voice and agency?

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Professor Aaditeshwar Seth of IIT Delhi joins host Veena Srinivasan. Aaditeshwar is the co-founder of Gram Vaani and one of the key people behind CoreStack, a digital public infrastructure for commons, resilience, and equity.

In this episode, Aaditeshwar traces his journey from computer science and rural communication networks to building participatory tools for communities, civil society organisations, researchers, and governments. The conversation begins with his journey with Gram Vaani, a voice-based...

Where did the idea of “water security” come from? How did countries around the world come to agree on shared goals for drinking water, sanitation, river basin management and sustainable development? And why does water still lack the kind of global institutional architecture that exists for climate change and biodiversity?

In this episode, Dr Roberto Lenton, one of the world’s leading voices on water security and international development joins host Veena Srinivasan for a conversation on the evolution of global water policy over the last eight decades.

Roberto has spent more than six decades workin...

How can satellites measure crop water use from space? Can they help farmers irrigate more precisely, improve yields, and make water distribution fairer across canal systems?

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Veena Srinivasan speaks with Professor Wim Bastiaanssen, a pioneer in satellite-based evapotranspiration mapping and the original developer of SEBAL — the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm.

Professor Bastiaanssen explains how satellite imagery can estimate actual evapotranspiration, soil moisture, crop water stress, and irrigation performance by combining land-surface temperature, vegetation data, and the surface energy balance. The conversation traces the journey from early field va...

Why do canal irrigation systems repeatedly produce head-tail inequality? Why do some farmers receive reliable water while others are systematically deprived for decades?

In this episode, Veena Srinivasan speaks with Professor Peter Mollinga, a leading scholar of irrigation and water governance, about the politics of canal irrigation systems in India. Drawing from nearly 40 years of research on the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal in Karnataka, the conversation explores the origins of “protective irrigation,” the spread of paddy cultivation, migration and agrarian change, groundwater salinity, farm ponds, irrigation reforms, and the political economy shaping canal systems across India.

Th...

California’s groundwater crisis did not emerge overnight. Decades of unrestricted pumping, falling groundwater levels, land subsidence, disappearing streamflows, and recurring droughts eventually pushed the state toward one of the world’s most ambitious groundwater governance reforms: the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Dr. Maurice Hall, Senior Advisor for Climate Resilient Water Systems at the Environmental Defense Fund, joins host Veena Srinivasan to speak about California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

The conversation explores how California’s unique water rights system shaped groundwater use, why the 2012...

Why is water never just a technical problem? Who gets water, who loses access, and who gets to decide?

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Professor Margreet Zwarteveen, an internationally recognised scholar of water governance, irrigation, gender, and the politics of natural resources, joins host Veena Srinivasan, Executive Director at WELL Labs.

Margreet Zwarteveen is Professor of Water Governance Education at IHE Delft and Professor of Governance and Inclusive Development at the University of Amsterdam. Trained first as an irrigation engineer and later as a social scientist, her work has shaped how we...

How can a satellite measure water buried deep underground? What can space-based observations tell us about groundwater depletion across the world? And how is this data shaping the future of water policy and governance?

Professor Jay Famiglietti, a leading hydrologist and former NASA scientist, joins host Veena Srinivasan on this episode of the Water Data Podcast to discuss the revolutionary GRACE satellite mission.

Jay is a Global Futures Professor at Arizona State University and is widely known for developing methods to detect groundwater depletion from space. His work has reshaped how scientists and policymakers understand...

Listen to host Veena Srinivasan as she continues to talk to researchers, innovators, government officials and business leaders working on the forefront of water systems. The show features rich conversations on the science, systems, and stories that shape our water future. 

Episodes drop every other Tuesday. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more updates. 

Watch episodes from season two here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrHB5gd1QIB8Tc2zlGRrz5QCxxP70FNBh&si=oQ-hH87g7IB5MhCG

What does water have to do with power, caste, labor, and economic policy?

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Professor Trevor Birkenholtz (Penn State University) explains how political ecology helps us understand groundwater, irrigation, and large-scale water infrastructure in India.

Trevor Birkenholtz is a political ecologist and development geographer with regional interests in South Asia and the United States. His empirical interests are in water-supply development, water infrastructure, wetlands and the politics of environmental change.

This conversation explores how water systems are shaped not just by engineering, but by power, history...

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 thi...

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 thi...

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...

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 syst...

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 Pod...

In this episode, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Henk Ovink who is often called the world’s first “Water Diplomat” for a deep and wide-ranging conversation on trust, global cooperation, imagined redundancy, and the future of water governance around the world.

Henk Ovink, joins host Veena Srinivasan on Season 2, Episode 9 of the Water Data Podcast. 

Henk has had an extraordinary career shaping water diplomacy and resilience - from serving as the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to leading Rebuild by Design under President Obama after Hurricane Sandy, to co-chai...

How should we understand groundwater in a warming world? Why has groundwater become the climate resilience resource for millions of people and what do we now know about how fast recharge can occur? What does new data tell us about the future of groundwater across Africa and Asia? And how can communities and governments manage groundwater without falling into the trap of over-extraction?

In this episode, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Richard Taylor who has spent decades studying groundwater systems across East Africa, West Africa, South Asia, and the UK, and has helped reshape how scientists understand...

How do we balance the science of water flows with the spiritual and social lives that rivers sustain? What does it mean to define “environmental flows” in a country where rivers are sacred? How can data, stories, and citizen science come together to restore river health?

In this episode, host Veena Srinivasan and guest co-host Nirat Bhatnagar of Dalberg Advisors are joined by two remarkable guests: Dr. Sejal Worah, Programme Director at WWF India, and Dr. Kate Brauman, Lead Scientist at the Global Water Security Center, University of Alabama.

Together, they explore the evolution of envi...

Nitrogen has been feeding billions, but it is now overloading our soils, waters, and air. Why is the fertilizer that fuels our food supply also creating a massive pollution problem? How do India's large fertilizer subsidies fit into this, and what are the long-term health risks of "legacy nitrogen" already in our groundwater?

Esha Zaveri, Senior Economist at the World Bank joins host Veena Srinivasan on Season 2, Episode 7 of the Water Data Podcast.

Esha Zaveri is trained as an environmental economist. Her core work addresses issues at the intersection of environmental health, agricultural impacts, water...

What makes the Indo-Gangetic Basin one of the most important aquifers in the world? How do stable isotopes, CFCs, and even traces of pharmaceuticals help us understand where groundwater comes from and how old it is? Can satellites like GRACE and InSAR give us new insights into groundwater depletion and recharge in South Asia?

Alan M. MacDonald, Head of Groundwater at the British Geological Survey, joins host Veena Srinivasan on Season 2, Episode 6 of the Water Data Podcast.

Alan is a hydrogeologist with over 30 years of research experience in Africa and South Asia, and has published...

Professor Murugesu Sivapalan shares how the field of hydrology has evolved over the past few decades, on Season 2, Episode 5 of the Water Data Podcast.

Prof Murugesu Sivapalan is the Chester and Helen Siess Endowed Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr Sivapalan is an award-winning academic and was founding chair of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) Decade on Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative. His work on Predictions in Ungauged Basins as well as in socio-hydrology have shaped the discipline of hydrology as we know it today. 

Host Veena Srinivasan sits down with Dr. Tom Gleeson, renowned hydrologist and Professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. 

Dr. Tom Gleeson shares his journey from a small-town experience with groundwater contamination to becoming a global leader in groundwater research. The conversation explores Tom’s early fieldwork in fractured rock aquifers, the challenges of modeling groundwater systems, and his pivotal role in developing global groundwater sustainability frameworks. Tom and Veena discuss the importance of context in water management and the need for both local and global perspectives.

This is Season 2, Episode 4 of the Water Data Pod...

How and why does flooding take place? How are flood risks evolving with climate change and large-scale human alteration of riverscapes and watersheds? Does it even make sense to measure a ‘100-year-flood’ any more?

Stockholm Water Prize 2025 winner Dr Guenter Bloeschl shares a masterclass on the science and management of floods on the third episode of Season 2 of the Water Data Podcast. The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. 

Professor Guenter Bloeschl is a hydrologist, engineer and academic from Austria. Dr Bloeschl is He...

Do farmers share and sell groundwater to each other informally? Can you price water for farmers? How does new technology get adopted in agriculture? Does solar irrigation make sense for India?

Dr Soumya Balasubramanya has a wide-ranging discussion with host Veena Srinivasan on the second episode of Season 2 of the Water Data Podcast.

Dr Soumya Balasubramanya is a senior economist with the World Bank, and previously a Senior Researcher in Environment and Development Economics at the International Water Management Institute-CGIAR. Soumya has worked extensively on analysing informal groundwater markets in South Asia, on irrigation and...

How do you develop a water policy for a state like Karnataka, and how do you implement it well? How can you bring the best of science, engineering and citizen engagement to water management in government? What does it mean to build a think tank within the government?

Dr Somasekhar Rao has a wide-ranging discussion with host Veena Srinivasan on the first episode of Season 2 of the Water Data Podcast.

Dr Somasekhar Rao is Director (Technical) of the Advanced Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management (ACIWRM), Government of Karnataka and helped the state government start...

The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. Every other Tuesday, sit down and listen to researchers, innovators, government officials and business leaders working on the forefront of water systems. 

New episodes out from June 22, 2025!

Veena Srinivasan is an award-winning socio-hydrologist as well as the founder and Executive Director of WELL Labs, a water systems research and innovation centre based in Bengaluru, India. 

The Water Data Podcast features discussions on what data and research tell us about water systems, ab...

The episode focuses on the  role and use of data for corporate water stewardship. Our guests  Hari Hegde from Wipro Limited and Jason Morisson from the CEO Water Mandate and the  Pacific Institute join us to talk about  business action, how businesses can become water efficient and how data ties into these questions. They walk us through their journey with corporate water stewardship.

The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. Every other Tuesday, sit down and listen to researchers, innovators, government officials and business lead...

In this episode, Ranjiv Khush from Aquaya Institute and Dr. Sunderrajan Krishnan from INREM foundation walk us through their journey with water data and its connections with water quality and public health. They discuss why water quality is important to them, the different facets of measuring water quality, different approaches to data-driven solutions towards better public health and the bottlenecks to scaling them.

The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. Every other Tuesday, sit down and listen to researchers, innovators, government officials and business...

In the first episode episode, our guests Peter Gleick from Pacific Institute and Rohini Nilekani from Arghyam, join us to talk about the role and importance of water data and the trends they have observed in the sector through decades of practice. They discuss the challenges and gaps in the water data ecosystem and how we can collaborate better, learn from each other and bring about a culture of using water data in decision making.

The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. Every other...