The importance of 'blue-green' infrastructure

As the tragedy in Nepal reminds us, water and forests cannot be taken for granted. This book offers policymakers a practical guide to building resilience against extreme weather

Water, Nature, Progress: Solutions for a New India

By Parameswaran Iyer, Arunabha Ghosh, Richard Damania

Published by 

HarperCollins India

296 pages ₹799

 The scale of devastation caused by the flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet in August 2026 was a wake-up call to anyone still doubting that climate change is real. Thousands of humans and animals perished in this massive tragedy that obliterated villages, rendered people homeless, uprooted trees, and destroyed infrastructure including roads, bridges, and hydropower projects.

 

As Nepal waits for the United Nations Loss and Damage Fund to process its $20 million climate justice claim, and India exports power to meet Nepal’s energy needs until December, this is also a time for us to get a grip on our own vulnerabilities. Border districts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were put on high alert fearing a cascading effect of the floods. Hundreds of Indian workers, pilgrims, and tourists who were in Nepal during the disaster went missing or were uncontactable.

 

 

Against this backdrop, Parameswaran Iyer, Arunabha Ghosh and Richard Damania’s book Water, Nature, Progress: Solutions for a New India is a useful resource for policymakers, bureaucrats, and researchers keen to “build resilience against climate change and extreme weather”. They urge cities to “invest in blue-green infrastructure, a combination of rivers, lakes, wetlands and water utilities along with urban forests, parks, vertical gardens, tree cover, and green roofs”.

 

What these authors have to say matters because Mr Iyer is executive director at the World Bank representing India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, while Dr Ghosh is the founder-CEO of the Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment, and Water. Dr Damania is the chief economic advisor for the Planet Vice Presidency at the World Bank.

 

Their choice of the word “infrastructure” to talk about water is significant because it cautions us that water cannot be taken for granted. Water has a vital role in shaping India’s development trajectory alongside airports, highways, sewage systems, cellular towers, and data centres.

 

With forest land being cleared for construction or mining in several parts of India, despite environmentalists’ warnings, this book might help decision makers appreciate why forests, too, need to be regarded as infrastructure. The authors point out that upstream natural forests “act as hydrological buffers functioning like sponges that absorb rainfall, slow runoff and gradually release moisture to downstream areas”. This is science speaking; not ideology or emotion.

 

The practice of compensatory afforestation, which involves planting trees elsewhere to make up for cleared forest land, is criticised for its inability to address the resulting harm. The authors rightly note that “artificial reforestation initiatives” tend to favour commercial monocultures and lack the biodiversity, especially native species, needed to preserve local hydrological systems.

 

Apart from flood management, rainwater harvesting, conservation of wetlands, and a circular water economy that reuses water, this book recommends “intercropping cereals with legumes, such as sorghum with pigeon pea” to ensure “moisture savings” in addition to “nutritional and economic benefits”. These crops not only require less water than rice and wheat cultivation, prioritised during the Green Revolution, but they also enrich soil and enhance water retention.

 

Speaking of food security, it is surprising that the book does not address the environmental impact of the meat and dairy industries, which are heavily dependent on water to grow fodder, provide hydration and cooling for livestock health, and to sanitise processing equipment. The demand for fresh water for these animals increases substantially during summer months.

 

While the book advocates a shift to millets, citing “higher levels of protein, dietary fibre, essential minerals like iron, calcium and zinc, and vitamins like thiamin, niacin, folate and carotenoids”, it shies away from engaging with the growing market for plant-based foods and alternative sources of protein from drought-resilient crops such as jackfruit and moringa. Their health benefits should be available to all, and not just to those who adopt a vegan lifestyle.

 

The authors have put a woman, who is a millet farmer from Odisha, on the cover to emphasise “the right crop choice to maximise green water use in India’s rainfed regions” but the book does not examine how a person’s gender influences their access to and control over water resources.

 

Unfortunately, readers are asked to scan a QR code to access the detailed notes. It is a mystery as to why a book aimed at decision-makers would not provide easy access to reference materials. The target audience would want to look up the sources of all the statistics in the chapters.

 

On a positive note, this book might serve as valuable preparatory material leading up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya this November, and the United Nations Water Conference to be held in Abu Dhabi this December, and to those working on Sustainable Development Goal 6 that focuses on clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.

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The reviewer is a journalist and literary critic. @chintanwriting