Introduction
Veditum India Foundation’s City Water Walks program was born out of the desire to understand how the urban commons function and how they are affected by constant changes in governance and development. It is aimed at mapping the urban water commons and to understand a city’s water systems, through regular fieldwork and by literally, following the water. As a prelude to the program being initiated in Kolkata, the city’s water infrastructure is aimed to be understood through tackling three basic questions:
Where does our water come from?
How is our water distributed and used?
Where does our water go once disposed of?
The first part of the series explored the history of the development of water supply infrastructure in Kolkata in the form of a short explainer video released in 2021. With the help of secondary resources, the evolution in the water supply system was traced- from local water carriers (or bhistis) and underground water tanks to the setting up of the first water works, to be followed by several more. The development was traced from the colonial period of the early 1800s to post-independent India and its many infrastructural developments and strategies.
See the first video at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvK61JQfa03c
This output in the form of an explainer video forms the second part of the series, and is aimed at understanding how this water is distributed once it is within the control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. This video is geared towards realising issues with distribution and taxation practices in the city, from the angle of social equity and water justice. It seeks to uncover whether water distribution and consumption patterns in Kolkata are just, and who bears the cost of inequalities in terms of access to water.
The findings from the second video lead to the upcoming third and final part of the series – to uncover how water which has been used makes its way out of our homes and out of the city. The series as a whole intends to provide a holistic understanding of Kolkata’s water system. This will finally lead us to start regular walks along Kolkata’s water bodies, creating and maintaining a live archive geared towards community engagement, and advancing justice and accountability of our shared water systems and their governance.