GreenSteps Chronicles
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GreenSteps Chronicles
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Babul lives in the slums of Kamalapur. He is the oldest person we have interviewed among all. When we asked him about the water condition, he almost cried and said, ‘I have seen the river dying. No! We all have seen the river dying and we did nothing! We just sat down and let it die!’.
Babul, an old man who is turning 70 this year, has lived his entire life dealing with and drinking unclean water. The lack of access to clean water deprives many people of the most basic need in Kamalapur. He mentioned that they mostly get contaminated water, if at all there is water available. He also accepted this as part of life and claims that he has become immune to the bacteria in the contaminated water! Babul was also a bit excited when he saw us talking about cleaning the water to solve the water and try to provide hygienic water in this area. He asked us, ‘when do you think you can start your work?’ he added, ‘I will also love to be a part of this to at least help to get clean water for my grand-children’. Babul worries about his young grandchildren for they are prone to falling sick. This is not a healthy way to raise children but with limited means there is very little that they can do. Babul also mentioned that the problem does not end there. They usually do not get water early in the morning due to the increased demand of water in the area. Hence highlighting an underlying problem of not just the contamination of water, but also the periodic scarcity of water.
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Monu is a 28-year-old daily laborer living near the slums of Kamalapur. He has lived in this area all his life. His water comes from a nearby government pump, like most everyone else, and has struggled to get sufficient water as far back as he can remember. He said to us: ‘It’s been like this since I gained knowledge of the real world’. He also mentioned that every week there are some days that the pump stays closed because of the limited water supply. More importantly, the pump is closed every morning! Inconsistent water supply is a huge hassle before going to work.
To get more details, we asked him about what the nearby hotel and restaurant owners do. In reply he said, ‘these hotel and restaurant owners use water from the Railway Station Toilet!’. We were a bit stunned about his reply and we asked, was any action taken by the authorities about this? He said, ‘they have their way to please the authorities time to time!’. We realised that eating in this area is not safe and whoever eats here will have waterborne diseases for sure. Instead of going directly to work each morning, he and his wife must go far to get fresh water. Needing to spend several hours a day to get clean water is a major time sink and large daily disruption. This causes a financial toll on him and his family because of the time lost that could otherwise have been spent working. Each day he asks himself whether he should spend his time providing good quality water for his family or whether he should spend that time on extra work. Each day he must answer this opportunity cost. After all, he does not want his three children to suffer in the future as he suffers! |
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