THE WASH PHOTO PROJECT | 2018-19
An opportunity to witness and capture how clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene practices have a positive
impact on an individual’s life, and how the lack of it can lead to unimaginable circumstances.
(Funded by by WaterAid India)
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
A daughter and mother in law duo from Barkote block in Deogarh, Debaki and Sumati smartly help each other where one pumps the water and the other goes and places the pot in the house.
Bhadrak, Odisha, 2019
Bhadrak is a prominent district in Odisha which faces the wrath of heavy rainfall every year. From over flooding of every village in the district to contaminated water supplies, Bhadrak has been suffering it all for years. The land is too dry but once the floods engulf the villages, it results in pathos everywhere.
Bhadrak, Odisha, 2019
“The stones are slippery and the water is not very clean. Even when we try to keep this area clean, the floods make it messier. So, we fill our buckets and jump on alternative stones to avoid fall”, says Sunita of Palatpur village.
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Very few know that Jamudhi village of Deogarh produces the finest yields of black gram. The villagers sustainably exchange 1 kg of black gram to 4 kgs of rice with neighbouring villages, for a living. Gurubari Mahanta, thanks our team member for having brought a sufficient amount of black gram from the tribe.
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Women from the Bhuiyan tribe, an indigenous community in Gadia village in Deogarh district, Odisha break into an impromptu dance and distribute sweets as the first hand pump is installed in their village.
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Hearts and Scars | Gopal is an introverted child. In a class full of boys who love to showcase what they have learnt from the WASH song, he prefers to keep quiet. This is because his mother told him that his left ear lobe and face got damaged at a young age due to malnutrition caused due to the lack of specific nutrients as well as deficiency of water.
Nuapada, Odisha, 2019
Nuapada is a flouride affected district of Odisha with a reading as high as 3.88 mg/l. This is a working hand pump but the fluoride content is so high that the locals only use it for cleaning and washing purposes.
Nuapada, Odisha, 2019
Ranging from small children to adults, almost everybody suffers from dental or skeletal fluorosis in Nuapada, Odisha. The fluoride content in the ground level is too high and the results are thus, very grave.
Nuapada, Odisha, 2019
From very young to very old, there is no age group that is devoid of Fluorosis in Nuapada. Durmila Bagh said, “My entire family has fluorosis. My husband died of fluorosis a few years ago before the disease hit me. He used to tell me how beautiful I looked with jewellery on me. So daily, I make sure that I look good even though it is a difficult to walk and bend these days.”
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Some of the villages of Barkote block in Deogarh district of Odisha face the issue of iron contamination in water at a large scale. The people claimed, “We fill large buckets in the morning and every bucket turns red because of iron in the water. It is not usable for drinking after that.”
Bhadrak, Odisha, 2019
We walked for about five kilometres to reach the heart of Ghatapur, an almost extinct village in Bhadrak. The roads are not meant for cars and the locals travel all the way to the main road to fill one bucket of drinking water because that is the only working hand pump out of the other two installed in their village. Meanwhile, there are two other running streams of water flowing through the village which again have dirty and contaminated water. However, the children bathe and wash using the same streams due to the lack of options in this village.
I spotted a group of happy children playing next to a deserted hand pump, completely unaware that they were very close to the swollen river beds of River Baitarani that floods and drowns the entire village during rains. Contradictorily, the village has water facilities, next to nothing throughout the year. It is during these floods that the water faces contamination and spreads like a famine all across the village.
Bhadrak, Odisha, 2019
While browsing the streets of Palatpur, I met Barsarani, a girl of twelve. She told me that she had a younger brother and she went to the local school very near to her house. I shot this picture of Barsa washing her tiffin box after she had parked her bicycle in front of her house. She even said, “My school has a better supply of water than our village which is why I bring plastic bottles filled with clean water that can be used at home.”
Bhim Basti, Delhi, 2019
Like every other slum, the lanes in Bhim Basti are extremely narrow with clingy houses on both the sides. There are vegetable vendors, customers bargaining, and two-wheelers honking and making their way to the destination in a hurry. Amidst the chaos, there are women filling water from the taps, pipelines and storage drums outside their houses.
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Gurubaari from the Munda community of Gadia village shows a sample of drinking water. This is the quality of water they consume in the remote villages of Deogarh till date.
Bhadrak, Odisha, 2019
Sitalpur primary school’s teachers make sure that the children are taught to wash their tiffin boxes and plates regularly to avoid bad odour and unhygienic conditions.
Deogarh, Odisha, 2019
Despite all the pathos, a woman from Bhuiyan tribe expresses her happiness when she gets to know that a hand pump is going to be installed in their area.
