4800 PEOPLE DIE EVERY DAY FROM WATER BORNE DISEASES.
80% ILLNESS WORLDWIDE IS CAUSED BY UNSAFE DRINKING WATER*
*SOURCE: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
[ Lalan, boatman ] In the past, the Ganges used to be crystal clear.
[ Lalan ] Now look, you can see it's all green.
[ Lalan ] When it was clean,
you could throw a coin in the water and see it clearly.
[ Lalan ] Now it's all dirty.
[ Lalan ] We don't drink... We only bathe in the river now.
[ Lalan ] We don't drink it.
[ Ankit Raghav ] This is the bathroom and this is the toilet.
[ Ankit ] We pour the water in this and this water is going by river.
[ Ankit ] From this pipeline.
[ Ankit ] And this water is going into the river.
CRY OF A RIVER
[ Manoj Kumar, Scientist ] Welcome to this museum.
[ Manoj ] One more very exciting thing is this sofa-toilet,
used in Victorian clubs in England.
[ Manoj ] With their friends playing chess, cards and gossiping, they were defecating,
and they had a person to attend them,
standing next to them, putting perfume.
[ VO ] This museum is Dr. Patak's pet project, for many years he has promoted … toilets.
That may seem a peculiar obsession but, according to the World
Health Organization, one third of the world’s population has no
access to proper toilet facilities and almost 2 billion people take
their drinking water from sources contaminated with fecal matter.
[ Pathak Bindeshwar ] 113 million houses have no toilets in the rural areas.
[ Pathak ] People have mobile phones but not a toilet.
[ Pathak ] So like Sulabh, we want... we should meet the villagers,
to build their toilets and also to see that they function very well.
PUBLIC inCONVENIENCE
[ Life ] Let's go to the bathroom.
[ Life ] You want to pee? OK, let's go.
[ Life ] When she has to go urgently,
she starts saying, 'Mum, faster, faster!' So we let her pee in the alley.
[ Life ] When she does, we clean up the ally.
[ Life ] This is our place.
[ Life ] This is where we start our morning routine.
[ Life ] To go to the latrine.
[ Life ] We come early in the morning, when it's still dark.
[ Manoj ] Greetings.
[ Manoj ] Those who don't have a toilet at home, raise your hand.
[ Manoj ] So they all have no toilets in their houses.
[ Manoj ] Please, hands up again. - Put your hands higher, so they can see.
[ Manoj ] This is why the government has adopted a program aimed at
putting a toilet into every household by 2019.
[ Manoj ] Every household!
[ Manoj ] As part of this program,
this village has been chosen to have a number of toilets built.
[ Manoj ] But, before we build them,
we want you to know exactly how you'll...
benefit.
[ Manoj ] We want to know about the difficulties women face.
[ Manoj ] In the day, without a toilet, you can't go outside, it's inconvenient.
[ Manoj ] Do you have to hold it in all day until it gets dark?
[ Manoj ] What problems and difficulties are there?
[ Life ] We are shy outside in front of the men.
[ Life ] We all go in the field.
[ Life ] Everyone does!
[ Life ] Both men and women do.
[ Life ] If men come by, women have to stop.
[ Life ] Women have to wait a long time.
[ Life ] Let me tell you, there's another issue.
[ Life ] For example, when a pregnant women is full term,
and about to deliver, and goes out to the field,
she gives birth right there.
[ Life ] There have been cases of this.
[ Life ] One of the women even died.
[ Life ] She died?
[ Life ] Yes, a mother of two, both young girls.
[ Life ] This woman's daughter-in-law
has to pass many houses
to go and relieve herself.
[ Life ] Once, a snake bit her. - I see.
[ Life ] When it rains, there are many snakes on the ground.
[ Life ] She died from its venom.
[ Life ] A toilet could have saved her.
[ Savitry Devi ] She came back and lay down,
then she went really quiet and turned blue.
[ Savitry Devi ] She'd been bitten by a snake.
[ Savitry Devi ] We called a man who knows how to suck venom out,
but he couldn't help.
[ Anil Kumar, husband of the deceased ] I'm building a toilet,
[ Anil ] I think it's vital so no one has to leave the house.
[ Man ] You have a sister.
[ Man ] Are you going to marry her off?
[ Anil ] Yes, in about a month.
[ Man ] Will you make sure that the house
where your sister will live, once she's married,
has a toilet?
[ Anil ] Yes. We've already been to check.
[ Anil ] They built a house with a toilet. I gave them my blessing.
[ Savitry Devi ] We've only just started to pay attention to this.
[ Savitry Devi ] Before, we'd only make sure there was a house and land.
[ Manoj ] The whole village is sick.
[ Manoj ] Many suffer from terrible itching.
[ Manoj ] People, even kids, have spots all over their bodies.
[ Manoj ] Look at him.
[ Manoj ] He has spots all over his body.
[ Manoj ] That's it. Look at this.
[ Manoj ] All from water problems.
[ Manoj ] Look, her whole hand is covered in spots because of the dirty water.
[ Manoj ] You too? - Yes. Her entire leg is affected.
[ Manoj ] These conditions are caused by people relieving themselves in the field.
[ Manoj ] Faces contaminates the drinking water.
[ Manoj ] It causes all their ailments.
[ Life ] The fire has gone out.
[ Life ] Go and get the body.
[ Kashi Baba ] This place was started by Lord Shiva.
[ Kashi Baba ] Mother Sati was burned here more than 3,500 years ago,
and the same fire keeps going on, non stop.
[ Kashi Baba ] We don't burn holy men, 'sadhu',
children, animals, leprosy, pregnant ladies, cobra bite.
[ Kashi Baba ] So, all these bodies we take a heavy stone, and tie the body with a rope,
take one boat, go to middle of the Ganges and sink without burning.
WHY THE RIVER WILL DIE
[ Lalan ] There are many embankments, which one do you need?
[ Lalan ] There are at least 80.
[ Lalan ] This is my whole life. My work is my life.
[ Lalan ] It has been since I was a child.
[ Lalan ] My father taught me, he didn't educate me.
[ Lalan ] I've done it all my life.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi Msc Phd Environmental Science & Technology Centre,
Banaras Hindu University ] The Ganges had its unique characteristics.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] Besides bacteriophages there are some bacteria, also,
they kill other pathogenic bacteria.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] Аnd early Ganges water had
very high concentrations of dissolved oxygen.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] It's around 12 to 14
milligrams per litre, this is the concentration,
which normally doesn't occur in other rivers of the world.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] That is why you will find that because of these rocks and minerals,
Ganges water became medicinal.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] It is believed in India that if you have any skin disease,
and if you take water, if you take bath in the Ganges,
then you will be cured.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] You will not find original quality of water.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] You will not find the water
which can be said that 'This is Mother Ganges'.
[ Dr B. D. Tripathi ] These medicinal properties have been lost from the Ganges water.
[ Lalan ] People's morals have reached an all-time low.
[ Lalan ] Now they throw all kinds of rubbish into the sacred River Ganges.
[ Lalan ] For example, if a holy cow or an ox dies,
people just throw its carcass into the river.
[ Life ] This one's already burned.
[ Life ] Go to hell! Go and put it there.
[ Life ] I've been waiting over an hour.
[ Life ] What time is it now? - Yes, he's been waiting an hour.
[ Life ] Did you take my fire wood?
[ Kashi Baba ] Dead bodies cannot make a big difference,
because since long tradition we've been doing this…
[ Kashi Baba ] Things, plastic or something, dirtiness,
or some synthetic things, or chemical things,
they throw it in the Ganges.
[ Kashi Baba ] One day, if that happens, Mother Ganges will be lost.
[ Kashi Baba ] And if we lose Mother Ganges, it means we lose the universe.
[ Rakesh Jaiswal Ngo Activist ] In Kanpur, the River Ganges is being
polluted by leather factories.
[ Rakesh ] There are 400 tanneries right on the bank of the River Ganges.
[ Rakesh ] The waste water is highly chemicalised and hazardous,
and it goes to the river without any treatment.
[ Rakesh ] This water contains a variety of chemicals:
dyes, acids,
sulphides, chlorides,
preservatives, and the most important,
basic chrome sulphate and it's fatal to life.
[ Rakesh ] Chromium is a known carcinogen and it causes cancer.
[ Rakesh ] This water is used for irrigating 2,500 hectares of land.
[ Rakesh ] But this water is not safe for irrigation.
[ Rakesh ] And this water has impacted the local environment,
the soil and also the ground water.
[ Rakesh ] Ideally, no crop should be grown here,
because the crop is also contaminated.
[ Rakesh ] Nothing should be grown which is for human consumption.
[ Rakesh ] Or even for animal consumption.
[ Rakesh ] The international markets know that these industries are polluting.
[ Rakesh ] They simply ignore it or they close their eyes to the problems.
[ Rakesh ] They want good quality leather
at the low cost.
WATER, BRINGER OF DEATH
[ Son ] He was a farmer who grew roses, wheat and rice.
[ Son ] Gradually, the roses grew weak,
their roots started to dry out and rot.
[ Son ] Young bushes would just die.
[ Son ] Now we don't grow any roses at all.
[ Son ] He suffered from stomach aches for the final 4 or 5 years.
[ Son ] Then he got tumours in his throat.
[ Son ] The water is now so dirty that everyone here is sick.
[ Son ] Our doctors keep saying that the water is no good...
[ Son ] All from the water, we need real sanitation.
[ Guria, wife ] His hands were in water most of the time.
[ Guria ] He had severe itching and ulcers for a year.
[ Guria ] You could even see that the tissue inside the ulcers looked burned.
[ Guria ] He was taking various medication.
[ Guria ] He consulted several doctors,
but they couldn't diagnose him.
[ Guria ] Gradually, he started to lose his fingers.
[ Guria ] All of his nails fell off.
[ Rajendar Kumar ] As I'm no use, my wife now does all the work.
[ Rajendar ] If there is any work, I go and ask,
but employers always notice my hand,
most manual labour needs the use of hands.
[ Rajendar ] They think I would not make a good employee
and they kick me out.
[ Rajendar ] My wife earns our living and feeds me I have one useless hand.
[ Rajendar ] Only she earns any money.
[ Rajendar ] She feeds me and our children.
[ Rajendar ] This is the situation I'm in.
70% OF THE PLANET’S INDUSTRIAL DISCHARGE FINDS ITS WAY
INTO THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
[ Man ] This is one of the largest rice factories in Asia.
[ Man ] There is no drain to take water, away from the premises,
we kept hearing complaints.
[ Man ] They wash raw materials, then dump water in the soil.
[ Man ] So, how did they deal with it?
[ Man ] They don't have a proper sewage system,
they dug holes inside the factory, and dump the water there.
[ Man ] This causes the water level in all neighbouring villages to rise,
there are 20 to 25 of them in the catchment area.
[ Man ] The dirty water contaminates the groundwater, polluting it.
[ Abishek Kumar Michra project manager ] During our investigation we entered this house
and discovered that the water here
was causing some cancer sufferers.
[ Abishek ] We found it was making people seriously ill.
[ Abishek ] When we checked the next house,
we found yet another 2 or 3 sick people.
[ Abishek ] We continued checking houses,
taking notes as we went,
we found sick people in every second house.
[ Abishek ] This shows Total Dissolved Solids levels of 701,
5 times higher than the safe level.
[ Abishek ] If you drink this water,
you will quickly die.
[ Sundar ] He had a tumour growing here,
which spread to half his body and disfigured him.
[ Sundar ] It even started to eat away his muscles.
[ Sundar ] We couldn't afford better treatment we are poor.
[ Sundar ] It's one month and a week since he died.
[ Sundar ] Don't you think that,
as your brother died from drinking the water,
you want to poison your son the same way?
[ Sundar ] Yes, yes, brother, I know!
[ Sundar ] But it's a hopeless situation.
CALCUTTA’S WATER AND DROUGHT.
[ VO ] There is plenty of water in India’s former colonial capital but barely a drop
of it can serve any useful purpose, nearly all of the groundwater is contaminated
by naturally occurring arsenic, and large scale dumping of industrial waste
and effluent from all over the country has made the River Ganga water unusable.
[ VO ] Most of the poor meet all of their water needs by going to
local street pumps, a source that’s considered relatively safe.
[ Life ] We drink whatever water there is.
[ Life ] What should we do?
[ Life ] You have to drink or you die.
[ VO ] Throughout Calcutta though, more and more
water sources are becoming unsafe. Special
water tankers deliver clean water around the
town that’s covered by an extensive network of
lakes and canals. Such intense activity to
delivery fresh water might be understandable in a
desert, but not in a city that boasts one of
the highest numbers of water sources in India.
[ Artem ] Why they need take water from a tanker
if they have these pipes, this canal and so on?
[ Woman ] The water is black.
[ Woman ] It tastes bitter, it stinks.
[ Woman ] Come this way please.
[ Woman ] It's dirty and it smells.
[ Woman ] It's smelling. [ Artem ] Smelling? Can I smell it? Can she show me?
[ Woman ] Pump some, let's see the colour.
[ Artem ] It smells.
[ Artem ] Do you bathe in it? [ Woman ] Not anymore.
[ Woman ] We used to, but now the water is black
and smells bad.
[ Artem ] Is she washing her clothes with this water?
[ Woman ] Not anymore. I didn't feel good wearing them.
[ Artem ] So this water is unusable?
[ Woman ] We only drink delivered water.
[ Woman ] We have to get water from the tank.
[ VO ] Northern Asia, the Middle East, most of Africa, North-East
Mexico, the Western states of America, Argentina,
Chile and most of continental Australia suffer from a
lack of fresh water - and pollution is the major cause.
LESS THEN 1% OF THE WORLD’S WATER IS SAFELY DRINKABLE.