The Water Data Podcast
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan. Every other Tuesday, sit down and listen to researchers, innovators, government officials and business leaders working on the forefront of water systems.
Veena Srinivasan is an award-winning socio-hydrologist as well as the founder and Executive Director of WELL Labs, a water systems research and innovation centre based in Bengaluru, India.
The Water Data Podcast features discussions on what data and research tell us about water systems, about how climate change is affecting them and how human use of water is transforming the stock and flow of water across diverse landscapes and aquifers. The show focuses on how we can collectively manage water systems better.
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app - and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel.
The Water Data Podcast
Nitrogen and Phosphorous Leave a Legacy of Water Pollution | Nandita Basu
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When a lake turns green with algae, or nitrate shows up in drinking water, the most obvious question would be: Why can’t we fix this quickly?
In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Veena Srinivasan speaks with Professor Nandita Basu from the University of Waterloo about nitrogen and phosphorus legacies – the hidden nutrient stores in soils, groundwater, and sediments that keep polluting waterways for decades.
They unpack how the Haber-Bosch process transformed agriculture, why nitrogen use efficiency stays low, and how drained agricultural landscapes can rapidly transport nitrates from fields to major river systems and even the Gulf of Mexico. They also explore why phosphorus behaves differently - sticking to soils and sediments, fuelling algal blooms, and creating stubborn feedback loops when lakes turn low-oxygen.
Finally, they discuss what can still be done: turning the ‘easy knobs’ like phosphate in detergents, targeting livestock manure hotspots, using small ponds and wetlands as high-impact interventions, and why India urgently needs far more empirical measurement to diagnose problems and track solutions.
The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan.
For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit ________
Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app – and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs.
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Recording by Vraj Acharya, Nabina Chakraborty. Video editing by Vraj Acharya. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.
