[Reader-list] [Announcements] Film at Sarai: Faecal Attraction, by Pradip Saha

[The Sarai Programme]

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Delhi Dialogues
Film and Public Discussion @ Sarai: Faecal Attraction 
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Faecal Attraction (Parts I & II)
5:30 P.M., Friday, 13 March 2007
Seminar Hall, Sarai-CSDS
(In collaboration with the Centre for Science and Environment)

Part 1 : Political Economy of Defecation
A Film by Pradip Saha, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
32 minutes. 2007.

All rivers in India look like sewage canals, if they carry any liquid at
all! The stretches by the cities are worst. And urban middle class is
bothered about the lost beauty of their rivers.City fathers either evict
poor people living in 'illegal' shanties by the river, or they build
expensive sewage treatment plants.But the rivers are no cleaner than
before.	We actually do not know how much sewage is generated, and whole
city is not connected to the sewage network, and there is not enough
electricity to run these treatment plants.

The state responds to rich peoples' water and sanitation demand. Poor
people get very little water, mostly unsafe water, pay more for it. Poor do
not get sanitation cover, and pay heavy price in terms of water-borne
diseases.The video shows the relationship between rich man's shit and poor
man's water. And it is funny.

Part II: Clean Up Your Act
A Film by Pradip Saha, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
43 minutes. 2007

The electro-mechanical urban sewage management, with miles of pipes and
hundreds of pumps have failed. But there is no reason to be depressed.Our
ignorance about the sanitation science makes us feel powerless. And if our
priority is sanitation, not cosmetic surgery on rivers, or dole to
contractors, then we should move towards decentralized, individual house,
or neighbourhood level waste management systems. The video travels through
Pune, Agra, Delhi, Ujjain, Indore and Pondicherry, to showcase a host of
systems that have been improvised over traditional septic tank soak pit.
These are not just "beautiful ideas", an euphemism for killing any low
cost affordable technology, but being practiced by courageous citizens. In
fact, there are cheaper, sure-shot ways of cleaning polluted water bodies
like rivers and lakes.

There should be an immediate freeze on wasting any more money in the name
of sewage management system. After all, cheaper systems will not force
citizens of India to be indebted to multilateral banks and financial
institutes.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Pradip
Saha and a team of researchers from CSE  who work on urban water, sewage
and sanitation - S V Suresh Babu, R K Srini, Bharat Seth and Bidisha Kumar.

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