…follow the water

Manifesto for Water Futures.

We agree that the global water crisis presents a communications design challenge of urgent immensity. From where we sit,

paani water, ghats steps, vidhushak trixter, matkas containers, ulat bansi upside-down stories,
and melas fairs are the mediums of our message.

However, current public understanding about the use and management of water is
broadly defined by embodied practice, everyday experiences, and faith. The perspective
that developing regions have outmoded experiences and assumptions ignores the reality
of daily practice and serves to create a hierarchy of meaning that places certain forms of
water use and practice above others despite the apparent and real effectiveness of
available options.
Rather than “powerful, fact-based narratives”, we believe in narratives that respond to
their audiences and allow for multiple interpretations. Sarcasm, word play, exaggeration,
juxtaposition, false-belief, humor, optimism and rebellion are tactics needed to engage
and inform diverse, international audiences of varying demographics and geographies.
Facts may be starting points, but because we cannot control interpretation, they are not
ends in themselves.
We believe that the water crisis is a social problem that cannot only be solved by
scientific or technological means or other rational approaches. Irrational responses are
therefore positive, justified, and appropriate.

The water crisis is not in need of novelty or innovation. It needs relevant visual
identities, mantras, mythologies and stories carried by relevant mediums that entertain,
inform, and inspire audiences that are socially, politically, and economically isolated.

Because policy makers lack political will and personal motivation to implement existing,
effective, small, scalable solutions, we will always lack the full scope of raw field data and
the presentation tools needed to make water crisis understandable and actionable for
policy makers.

We value varied groups, not select groups. We value practice beyond thought. Leaders
in our opinion are those that use personal invention and creativity to affect everyday
practice and demonstrate how political, social, and economic barriers to water availability
can be overcome.

The crisis is a complex mix of global and local implications for matter and meaning. It
therefore requires responses that connect many locations from the most broad
panoramic view to the most minute, localized interaction.

Four main issues characterize the emerging water crisis:
1. The problem is not scarcity. We have an abundance of water. The problem is access
limited by changing ecological conditions, costs of technology, and social, economic and
political disparities.

2. Inequitable distribution and out-of-equilibrium use cycles make available water
unpotable and unsafe for living.

3. The water crisis is fundamentally complicated by outmoded ideas of rights and
ownership. These concepts seek to create additional divisions and further amplify
problems of access.

4. Standards do not currently represent or account for contemporary water use. These
standards create incompatibilities in both meaning and matter when policy is made and
when technology is developed to respond to the crisis. The existence of current
standards, their role in international trade, and their high cost of acquisition and
participation means that so-called developing regions are placed at a disadvantage.