Between the Life and Death of a River: Contested Knowledge in a Toxic Commons

亚穆纳河是印度恒河的第二大支流，在到达德里之前流经几个邦。虽然它在首都的22公里长只占其集水区的2%，但它产生的污染物占河流总污染物的75%以上。这在很大程度上是由于工业废水的倾倒，以及未经处理的污水通过排水沟网络进入河流。由于溶解氧的耗尽，当亚穆纳河离开德里时，它被认为是一条生态上“死亡”的河流。一方面，该项目考察了计算和规划的实践，通过这些实践，国家和科学当局产生了关于废物和污染的知识。在这条河的背景下，什么构成了“死亡”？复兴这条河的努力又蕴含着什么样的政治风险？与此同时，它与亚穆纳河两岸居民的多样化生计实践相结合，着眼于一条死水如何矛盾地维持“生命”。这包括追踪当地居民，他们既依赖这条河，又最容易受到其危害，他们如何在日常生活中思考和应对毒性。通过研究国家和基层群体如何产生关于废物和水的知识，以及这些知识实践在哪里相互作用或发生冲突，该项目调查了德里作为社会政治争论的新兴领域的毒性。最重要的问题是：在什么条件下，关于污染和生态的主张会产生政治意义？这对亚穆纳地区日常生活中关于照顾和伤害的协商有何影响？这项研究的重点是一条“死”河，它还将为我们如何理解“生命”和“死亡”，特别是在生态严重退化的地区，得出更广泛的结论。

The Yamuna River is the second largest tributary of the Ganga in India and crosses several states before reaching Delhi. Although its 22 km stretch through the capital only makes up 2 percent of its catchment area, it generates more than 75 percent of total pollutants in the river. Largely, this owes to the dumping of industrial effluents as well as untreated sewage that enters the river via a network of drains. Owing to its depleted levels of dissolved oxygen, by the time the Yamuna leaves Delhi, it is considered an ecologically 'dead' river. On the one hand, this project examines the practices of calculation and planning through which knowledge about waste and pollution is produced by state and scientific authorities. What constitutes 'death' in the context of the river and what are the political stakes embedded in efforts for its revival? At the same time, it engages with the diversity of livelihood practices that populate the banks of the Yamuna, looking at how a dead river paradoxically also sustains 'life'. This involves tracing how local residents, who both depend on the river and most exposed to its harm, think about and respond to toxicity in their day to day lives. By studying how state and subaltern groups produce knowledge about waste and water and where these knowledge practices interact or come into conflict, this project investigates toxicity as an emerging ground of socio-political contention in Delhi. The overarching questions asked are: under what conditions do claims about pollution and ecology accrue political significance? How does this affect the everyday negotiations of care and harm that characterise life around the Yamuna? In its focus around a 'dead' river, the research will also draw broader conclusions for how we understand 'life' and 'death', particularly within zones of intense ecological degradation.