The Language of Water: Ancient Techniques and Community Stories for a Water Secure Future

Going beyond simply addressing climate change, The Language of Water shows us how to actively change the climate by learning from communities around the world and their traditional relationships with water.

With powerful stories demonstrating tangible, successful water-holding techniques, this book extends an invitation to us all: can we keep the world in balance by learning to speak the language of our most precious resource?

Authors Minni Jain and Philip Franses of The Flow Partnership draw from decades of experience with community-led management of floods and droughts in India, Africa, the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and other regions of the world to demonstrate, again and again, how replenished groundwater can cool the atmosphere, revive local economies, restore food security, store carbon, and rebalance our planet. Everyone understands that without water there is no life. Yet many are disconnected from their local watersheds and feel helpless to address the mounting ecological crises of our planet, which are often caused by overdrawing water from aquifers and breaking the relationship between humans and the water cycle.

The Language of Water gives us an understanding of the climate crisis through the lens of water. And it offers us a glimmer of hope, along with some effective steps to resolve it, by bringing the water balance back in our landscapes.