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 ________

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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.

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-chairing the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. He is also the Chair of the Board at IWMI.

In this episode, they discuss why trust is the foundation for any collective action and why “everything moves at the speed of trust.” Drawing from his experiences such as Rebuild by Design in the US, Water as Leverage in Asia, and global water negotiations at the UN, Henk illustrates how durable, community-owned solutions emerge.

The conversation highlights how the Global Commission on the Economics of Water reframed the hydrological cycle, equity, and valuation for policymakers worldwide

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-henk-ovink/

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 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 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 recharge, resilience, and climate impacts underground.

Professor Richard G. Taylor, a leading global expert on groundwater and climate change from University College London (UCL) joins host Veena Srinivasan on Season 2, Episode 8 of the Water Data Podcast.

Richard has spent decades studying groundwater systems across East Africa, West Africa, South Asia, and the UK, and has helped reshape how scientists understand recharge, resilience, and climate impacts underground.

In this episode, they discuss why groundwater is our largest and most crucial distributed store of freshwater and serves as a critical buffer against climate change. They explore how a warming world leads to fewer but heavier rainfalls, and what this means for increasing groundwater recharge, especially in the tropics.

Professor Taylor further explains the science behind rapid recharge, a concept derived from his work in East and West Africa, where water travels through "macropores" to reach deep aquifers in just hours or days. They also touch upon the "Sahelian paradox," a curious case in places like Niger where groundwater levels are rising due to changes in land use.

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-richard-taylor/

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 Nabina Chakraborty and Nanditha Gogate. 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.

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 environmental flows, the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows needed to sustain ecosystems and human well-being. Dr. Worah reflects on WWF India’s 18-year journey from pioneering environmental flow assessments in the Ganga to mobilizing citizen scientists through “Ganga Mitras” to monitor river health. Dr. Brauman, meanwhile, shares insights from Latin America and the U.S. on how data and narrative intersect - how communities, governments, and ecosystems co-create meaning around water.

The conversation ranges from the challenges of gathering hydrological data in India to the cultural significance of the Ganga, from payments for ecosystem services in South America to inefficiencies in canal systems in India. Both guests share how values, relationships, and adaptive management are as critical as data itself in governing water.

For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-brauman-worah/

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, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts!

Recording by Dalberg. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.

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 resources, climate change, and development policy, spanning global to region- and country-level assessments in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

In this episode, Esha and Veena zoom into India’s use of urea for agriculture, large fertilizer subsidies, low nitrogen use efficiency, groundwater exposure, and the challenge of legacy nitrogen that slows water-quality recovery. Further Esha also lays out how to cut pollution without cutting yields.

Esha explains why only a fraction of fertilizer reaches crops, why the rest leaks into groundwater and coasts, the health risks (from methemoglobinemia or blue baby syndrome to emerging low-level exposure links), and the policy levers that work—precision agronomy, enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, extension services, and redirecting subsidies to support farmer transitions.

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-eshazaveri/

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 Nabina Chakraborty and Ritik Pathak. 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.

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 widely on groundwater, climate change, and aquifer systems

In this episode, Alan and Veena dive deep into the Indo-Gangetic Basin, exploring how its young sediments and complex geology shape groundwater availability, why salinity and depletion can exist side by side, and how historical canal records still influence water levels today.

Alan explains how tracer studies and isotope hydrology reveal the origins of groundwater, and how modern tools like satellites are transforming our understanding of recharge, depletion, and salinity.

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-alanmacdonald/

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 Nabina Chakraborty and Nanditha Gogate. 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.

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 talks to Dr Sivapalan about his rich career of starting out with hydrological modeling, and early explorations into collecting and analysing hydrological data to infer how complex catchment and river basin systems functioned.

Hydrology is the science of the movement, distribution and management of water. Dr Sivapalan walks us through how the ‘Predictions in Ungauged Basins’ decade pushed people to better understand the physical processes around the hydrological cycle, beyond statistical analyses and calibrated models. He shares how catchments co-evolved with the biology they sustained, and how they shaped each other.

Dr Sivapalan goes on to talk about socio-hydrology, and how human activities also shape river basins and water systems, and vice versa. He explores how it is impossible to understand water systems today without paying close attention to human behaviour and human actions.

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-sivapalan/

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 Nabina Chakraborty. 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.