US Fulbright Program 2006 – 07 alumna, Cheryl Colopy, has authored Dirty, Sacred Rivers, a book exploring South Asia’s increasing water crisis. Colopy takes her readers from Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal in her book that covers North India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Through her book, she depicts how economic progress and gross mismanagement in the recent decades has drastically deteriorated the quality of rivers in the Indian Subcontinent. Colopy researched and wrote her book during seven years of travel and residence in South Asia. She has also written an op-ed on the issue in New York Times.

Colopy worked on South Asian Rivers in crisis, as a Regional Research Scholar, previously known as the Middle East North Africa South Asia Regional Research Program at Winrock International India in New Delhi in 2007. With the help of the Fulbright fellowship she undertook her exploration of the looming catastrophes in the Ganges river basin. She is an award-winning reporter, formerly with National Public Radio affiliate KQED in San Francisco.

Cheryl Colopy interviewing a local fisherman at Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary, Bhagalpur, Bihar