Summary: GreenHub Fellows: Dinesh Akhande, Sayan Sardar
Fellowship Film:
Jal Bhumi - East Kolkata Wetlands WEST BENGAL PROJECTS - East Kolkata Wetlands
The DD project within the peri-urban wetland community of the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) who saw wastewater as a nutrient – something to be preserved as it enhanced their livelihood opportunities – and worked to meticulously use wastewater through an elaborate set of management practices that perpetuated their livelihood security. At the same time, they had a very unique, albeit rustic sense of aesthetics which expressed itself in their overall work of recovering resources from wastewater through pisciculture and vegetable farming.
Over time and with learning from experience, they evolved a rich body of traditional knowledge which they preserved through their management practices. They had an experiential understanding of the scientific issues involved in this form of sewage-fed world of food growing. Late ecologist Dhrubajyoti Ghosh called this story of these wetlands an instance of living creatively with nature.
DD's objective is combining pedagogy and innovation to raise awareness as well as build a constituency among the youth and community for conservation of these unique wastewater wetlands. It also seeks to evolve new alternatives of utilising local waste and developing a new language of artistic engagements and interactions through a series of installations.
