EXCRETA MATTERS: A Students' Special Edition

February 12, 2013

We open a tap for water. We push the flush handle to get rid of our excreta. But do we ever stop to ask, where does the water come from? Where does the flushed waste go? These are the questions we raise and find answers to in our report, Excreta Matters: A students’ special edition.

We learn that our tap is joined to the raindrop, the river, and the water underground, in shallow and deep aquifers. We also confront an issue of growing concern. That the distance our water travels to reach our homes is increasing day by day. The city of Delhi, for instance, gets its water from the Ganga at Tehri Dam, over 300 km away; Chennai from Veeranam lake, located 235 km away; Hyderabad from Nagarjuna Sagar dam, 116 km away from the city.

The hi-tech city of Bengaluru’s source is 100 km away. And the river is located downstream, so huge volumes of power is used daily to transport and pump up the water.