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Battle for Water in Mumbai's Richest Neighborhood
2008-05-30 14:09:56
What happens is that he’s got this shot of these big burly underworld kind of guys actually commandeering a water tanker truck and deciding how the water will be distributed. Two burly guys are pushing and pulling people to come in, and they have a kind of a barricade for the tanker that is carrying water. I’m not sure who those guys are. They certainly don’t look like government employees to me. They look like local goons. What’s interesting is this is not a particular slum of Mumbai, this was right in the heart of Colaba which is where the Taj Mahal Hotel is, one of the ten best hotels in the world. It’s where the elite of Mumbai live, and it is the financial center of Mumbai. The people that live in the slum areas there service the whole area. They are not the people that are the managers, but certainly they are guys that run the lifts, that have their families make sure everything is clean. They deliver your food, they work in the restaurants. They are the watchmen, laundry people, and the people who wash your clothes. They are the people that keep the oil in the machinery that make sure you can live in the city of Mumbai. The video shows a line of 30 or 40 people, mostly women and girls and some little kids, just waiting for water. This is in an area where, in fact, if you go anywhere else, there’s water running in the tap. That’s the problem—the problem is that there is water for the people who are the opinion makers and the decision makers—water still comes to their tap. Some of them may have problems—it doesn’t come during the day, but they can always get water. They don’t have to stand in line for water. »
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In this blog, I display my own photos and discuss issues involving water that have inspired Paani ("Water"), a film I am developing to examine the daily struggle for water in the slums of Mumbai.
Shekhar Kapur is India's top-grossing film-maker and Oscar-winning director. A sampling of Kapur's work: |
Shekhar-
I certainly hope everyone takes your upcoming film seriously. I have documented (video/photo) water problems and fixes in the Philippines. Living in the US people do not realize how much for granted we all take just turning on a faucet. I get comments about well there is poverty here in the US too, and there is, BUT pretty much anywhere in the US you can find clean water. Many people do not believe there are places that YOU DO NOT have clean water.
I anxiously await the film!
Earl B
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