Film By: Niki Nirvikalpa, Sugantha Priscilla & Prasanth Kumar K
Mentored By: Bina Paul
City: Tiruchirapalli
The journey of water doesn’t end at the toilet when you flush it. The journey of ‘wastewater’ or sewage, as it is now known, begins here. This is a story about the wastewater of a town in Tamil Nadu, which, perhaps, is the story of wastewater across many Indian towns, and the lessons we can, perhaps, learn.
66% of Tamil Nadu relies on septic tanks to store their wastewater, which needs emptying, or desludging periodically. This is done mostly by private entrepreneurs, known as desludging operators. We follow two women, Parameshwari and Aravalli, who are desludging entrepreneurs in Tiruchirapalli.
These subterranean, out-of-sight aspects of water are mostly outside the consciousness of society, but are essential for the smooth running of our cities and towns. Thanks to this invisibilization, conversations about sanitation are not mainstreamed. The film is an attempt to make visible these hidden stories.