L'eau souterraine en Inde du sud. Un savoir réservé aux nouveaux maîtres de l'eau?

Olivia Aubriot (1, 2)

1 CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes
2 IFP - Institut Français de Pondichéry

Contrary to ancient techniques, in particular wells, which allowed available water to be seen, tubewells give access to hidden resources and raise numerous questions concerning farmers' knowledge about this "new" resource, deep water. This article discusses ancestral and empirical knowledge, as well as vernacular terminology in the light of new technologies, the new actors involved and the inferred socioeconomic stakes. As a matter of fact, the quest for groundwater is rampant, with pumps and tubewells transforming the way man relates to his environment as well as how people interact with each other. Several reasons are given to explain why water, a resource so fervently sought after, is used in a non-sustainable way. One explanation is farmers' unchanged conception of groundwater, whether from wells or tubewells, which leads to the ongoing practice of using water while it lasts; another reason is related to the notion of groundwater recharge; and yet another to the discourse about the changes in groundwater level which is passed on by the village's leading figures, those new water-masters, whose social status depends precisely on their controlling access to the resource. This article shows to what extent knowledge related to deep groundwater has yet to be validated, and how the multiplicity of the social, economic, political and environmental stakes leads to casting doubt on what the know-how developed by a few is really worth.

Domaines: Géographie; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Olivia Aubriot. L'eau souterraine en Inde du sud. Un savoir réservé aux nouveaux maîtres de l'eau?. Construire les savoirs dans l'action. Apprentissages et enjeux sociaux en Asie du Sud, Edition de l'EHESS, pp.237-262, 2011, collection Purusartha 29. ⟨hal-01053415⟩