The Wakal River Basin, located in Rajasthan, India, has become a home away from home during these three months of fieldwork. Arriving in the climatic heat of May, we witnessed a dramatic transformation as the long-awaited monsoon rains revolutionized the mountainous landscape, turning parched earth into critical livelihoods.
 Although the Wakal River Basin receives a modest amount of annual rainfall compared to the rest of the desert-dominated state of Rajasthan, almost all of this rainfall occurs in the 3-4 month monsoon window from late June through September. Although Rajasthan is the largest state in India, accounting for more than 10 percent of the geographic area, along with five percent of India’s population, it contains roughly only one percent of the nation’s total surface water resources. As a result of this overall water scarcity, available groundwater supplies act as a life vein of livelihood. Due to population growth and frequent droughts, the state’s groundwater resources are currently being over-exploited, resulting in water quality problems and declining water tables, which disproportionately affect the rural poor. The current unsustainable use of the resource jeopardizes its future productivity for all.
 With this as the backdrop of my research, I am in constant wonder as I hike through a tribal village, moving from one family-owned well to another. Accompanied this day by a World Vision field staff who acts as a local guide and a translator, I am grateful for the added ability to ask very specific questions about the water supply and quality of the wells. This day of sampling groundwater from wells, rainfall, and water impounded behind small-scale dams was part of a weekly water monitoring campaign that serves as a backbone of the fieldwork that I am carrying out this summer under the GLOWS-Wakal River Basin Project.
 The GLOWS-Wakal River Basin Project is a joint-project between World Vision India and Florida International University (FIU). World Vision India has been working in the Wakal River Basin for close to a decade, with the goal of improved watershed management as one of their main community development focuses. In order to make use of their valuable experience and knowledge of the region, Himadri Biswas and I—graduate students in the Department of Environmental Studies at FIU—will spend three months in the Wakal River Basin this summer investigating important water-related issues in order to further an understanding of the critical water resources of the river basin. This river basin, compared to the other GLOWS river basins projects, is relatively unstudied with regards to previous research. Therefore, our work often feels like an important, “trail-blazing” effort.
 The focus of my research is to study the impact that rainwater harvesting efforts have on providing additional sources of water supply to a very water-stressed region. Specifically, much of my study focuses on determining the effectiveness of rainwater harvesting efforts in augmenting groundwater recharge, along with better understanding how these ‘neo-traditional’ water management practices impact the quantity and quality of the groundwater used by rural villages on the region.
 Accompanying me in the field is Himadri Biswas, another FIU graduate student working with GLOWS, who was able to return to his native country of India to work in the Wakal River Basin. The focus of Himadri’s research is to use a computer model to represent the availability of the groundwater resources in the basin. This modeling effort will provide a better understanding of the availability and limits of the resource, both presently and in the future.
 One of the most rewarding aspects of our fieldwork in India is our interaction with the stakeholders that use, manage, and study the resource. These stakeholders vary from rural farmers to urban businessman, from non-government organizations (NGOs) addressing critical issues in the basin to the government agencies responsible for managing the natural resources, from university professors with a myriad of knowledge and experience about the resources and issues to impoverished beggars living at the mercy of strangers. Being invited into their lives and culture, it is now possible to more fully understand the weight and importance that our study may have in their lives. With this in mind, I can confidently say that it is the people in the river basin and not the work that I will remember in years to come.
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