Incorporating Cultural Context into Water Management: India Exchange

Shannon Davies
Environmental Engineer, AECOM, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
NSW Young Water Professional of the Year 2021, Australian Water Association
Australian Water Association, Newcastle Sub-committee
Engineers Australia, Newcastle WiE committee


In India, bathing in the River Ganga (Ganga) is said to wash away your sins. This should provide additional motivation to ensure raw sewage doesn’t continue to be discharged into the river. However, understanding the societies’ perception of any public health risk this poses must be considered alongside the locals’ well-established view that ‘Mother Ganga’ is self-purifying. It’s beliefs and customs such as this that cannot be ignored when considering water management in India, and which dictate how governments and organisations are best placed to initiate change.

As water professionals, what we do is inherently connected and intertwined with
community and culture. Helping communities reconnect their own relationships
with water is imperative. India has been doing this for years, with the National
Mission for Clean Ganga drawing upon the cultural connection to water in their
community consultation programs. This is also already underway in New Zealand,
with the concept of Te Mana o te Wai encouraging the country to put freshwater
first.

Summarising learnings from a professional exchange between Australia and India,
this paper highlights the complex relationships between water, religion, culture
and politics and makes comment on how the learnings may be applied to the
current context in New Zealand.