Kusum Athukorala Editor

Peter P Mollinga is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development Studies (ZEF) in Bonn, Germany. Prior to this, he was Associate Professor at the Irrigation and Water Engineering group at Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands. He is also Convener of SaciWATERs (South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies), Hyderabad, India. He has worked on irrigation management and reform, and more generally on the politics of water. He is presently involved in land and water management related research in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and India. His academic interest lies in the integration of natural and social science perspectives through the interdisciplinary study of water resources. Ajaya Dixit is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nepal Water for Health, a Nepali NGO that has built water supply schemes serving over 700,000 people in Nepal in partnership with community groups. He is also Founder of Nepal Water Conservation Foundation and Editor of Water Nepal, a journal addressing interdisciplinary water and development issues. He has taught hydraulics and water resources engineering at Tribhuvan University’s Institute of Engineering until 1989. He has also worked extensively as an analyst on water resources and environment issues in Nepal and South Asia. He has been a member of government of Nepal’s Water and Energy Commission from 1993 to 1997. Dr Dixit has written extensively on water and environment and developmental issues. He is engaged with actors in development agencies and village-based Water Users Groups, and in making constructive linking of water engineering and social issues. His current research is the study of adaptive approaches to floods and droughts in South Asia and the study of the impact of Global Environmental Change on food systems. Kusum Athukorala is Core Group Member for Sri Lanka of the SaciWATERs consortium based in Hyderabad, India, and its Theme Leader Advocacy. A former university teacher in Sri Lanka, she has worked extensively as a consultant, researcher and activist on development issues. Currently, her special interests include impacts of water transfers out of agriculture and post-tsunami river sand mining on rural sector in Sri Lanka and capacity building in the water sector. A long-term researcher, specifically on gender and water, she is part of several international water organisations, capacity building and promotion of allied issues.