Water pervades all spheres of life and is subject matter for many scientific disciplines. It arguably presents the most intractable challenge for scientists, planners and policy makers. Water problems are often taken as technical issues, subject to rationalization, optimization and best addressed by expert knowledge. Yet, in the past three decades water issues have proved to be highly divisive and have generated heated debates. Engineer-centered approaches have been challenged or paralleled by concerns for the role of social organization, institutions, power structures and, more generally, politics; economists have assumed an increasingly prominent role in stressing the significance of demand management and economic efficiency; environmentalists have been active in introducing a more holistic view of ecosystems, underlining the importance of water for the environment and human health; sociologists and political scientists have emphasized participation, democratic governance, livelihood security and collective action aspects of water resources management; social activists have vied for framing access to water as a human right.

The team of SAWAS shares the view that water problems have often been framed in too narrow and too disciplinary ways, despite the apparent emphasis on integrated management in present-day public discourse and policy documents. It also reckons that the political dimension of water resources development and management at all scales has been underplayed.

SAWAS aims to provide space for creative and free thinking on water, fostering debate, eliciting innovative alternatives, promoting original analyses and constructive critiques.

Its publications aim to broaden the South Asian water resources knowledge base by critically analyzing the water issues that play out at South Asian level; undertake comparative research on water resources issues in different parts of the sub-continent and study the localized water resources management process.