Three Cairns Scholars
Srishti Singh, India
Goal: Merge finance and water management for a more just and secure water future
According to the World Bank, the Global South could lose up to 6% of its GDP by 2050 due to water scarcity, with women and the poor most vulnerable.
Srishti Singh ’25 MEM is well aware of these, and many other, water-related challenges, as she most recently worked at India’s Central Pollution Control Board, where she was the sole social scientist on a team of physical scientists. “I realized I needed interdisciplinary training to become an effective leader in the water and climate space,” she says. “This led me to Yale.”
Srishti is centering her studies on water and climate finance, hoping, after graduation, to marry the two with work that improves water management and adaptation through smart incentives, "bringing more finance into the water sector" of the Global South.
Srishti will be tackling issues of climate resilience and water security this summer with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Resilience Partnership. At summer’s end, she also will coordinate a session at the 10th World Water Forum that focuses on Just Water Partnerships for the Global South. Both of these endeavors support her goals of working in international development and advocating for change that flows from the ground level up.
“My personal goal is to create a network of young environmental leaders from the Global South to build future coalitions that serve the water sector,” Singh says. “We need to push for change at the global level.”
Meet the 2024-25 Three Cairns Scholars
Benedicta Asiedu
'25 MEM Ghana
Lucía Castellares Tello
'25 MEM Perú
Jorge Andrés Forero Fajardo
'25 MEM Colombia
Mahica Iyer
'25 MEM United Arab Emirates
Ananya Rao
'25 MESc India
Srishti Singh
'25 MEM India