Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow Rinan Shah joins SSE to research water scarcity in the Himalayas
Dr Rinan Shah talks about her how she successfully applied for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant supported by Queen Mary, and her research aims for her fellowship.
Rinan Shah has joined the department of Geography and Environmental Science at SSE under the mentorship of Dr Jeremy Schmidt.
Rinan holds a PhD from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, and a Master’s degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Studies, from the Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies.
Her fellowship aims to bring about an understanding of the urban-rural continuum and the right to water, assess women’s participation and roles in achieving water security, and appraise current and expected impacts of climate change on water security.
Queen Mary offers applicants support throughout the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant application process. and Rinan found that being UK-based made a big difference to her application.
“It’s a very collaborative process at Queen Mary, the support team literally sit down with you to help you write the application. Jeremy, my mentor at SSE, the logistical grant managers, and the faculty research grant support team also helped out to make the application perfect.
“If you’re not from the UK, it’s hard to learn how the grant application system works. There are some things that need sign off from the university and there are a lot of moving parts until it all comes together.
In applying , Rinan found out that the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships ask that applicants meet cultural, social, and ethical criteria as part of the application.
“People were really surprised that I got the grant with the nature of the work that I was doing, which leans towards the humanities and social sciences. It was quite eye opening to learn that you can apply for such things from a non-science background.”
With her fellowship, Rinan hopes to produce a range of outputs for broader audiences to raise awareness of water scarcity in the region
“I want to be able to present some people-facing outputs, not just outputs for the research and academic communities, and produce something open access. I plan to create story mapping to map resources across landscapes and look at physical, community and institutional maps.”
“I am hoping to play a role in influencing policy by also creating a website to showcase this research to wider audiences.”
Rinan’s research will answer some of the bigger questions around water scarcity in mountain landscapes. Using her local knowledge and research experience, she aims to provide a better understanding of how socio-cultural behaviour impacts resources like water.
“My research asks what kind of larger narratives are around interacting boundaries of the biophysical, as well as institutionally and communally. Despite this region having the heaviest rainfall India, some people are still using the absolute minimum of water.
“According to Ministry of Jal Shakti in India, 50-100 litres per person per day allows people to lead a dignified human life, but in reality, this is not what people actually use, some people use as little as 7.5l a day, and it can up to 400 litres for others.”
“This begs the question how can anybody live with such little water – how do they use the water? The answer is that within these households they use the water multiple times. You wash your vegetables then wash your clothes, and then dump it or use it for flushing, you use it to water your plants, the same little amount of water people use it multiple times before its discarded. This is where sociology becomes important – as this scarcity creates an attitude of ‘we’ll make do with what we have’.”