"This book offers an excellent model of how a social anthropologist can undertake fieldwork and analyze a very technical topic in understandable language. It will be highly useful to students, academics, and practitioners in environmental science."--Harry Blair, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Bucknell University "An epidemic of waste is piling through every nook and cranny of the world, just as climate change stalks us. India is struggling to accommodate its population without threatening environmental sustainability, endangering species of flora and fauna, and desperately seeking means to save the rivers that have been turned into murky drains carrying wastewater. This book arrives at this historic moment of wastewater crisis to tell stories of how small initiatives can work wonders for local communities. Through her sophisticated treatment of anthropological engagement with one of the most pressing problems facing India, Kelly Alley leaves an ineffaceable impression of wastewater as a symbol of the country's river crisis but also directs the readers to solutions."--Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, coauthor of Dancing with the River: People and Life on the Chars of South Asia