vanguard blog | March 22, 2010 | 14 comments

A river of sh*t: World Water Day

Today is World Water Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness around water issues – scarcity, access and quality. It’s probably the one day each year we all really stop to think about how to better manage this precious resource.

 

When we talk about water issues, we generally think about water scarcity. But water quality is just as, if not more important for the over 1 billion people around the world who lack adequate access to safe, clean water.

Drinking water

According to a report, Sick Water, released today by the UN Environment Program, over 2 billion tons of waste (human and animal) and industrial pollution are dumped into water every day. This is water that doesn’t just flow away and disappear. It’s the stuff we drink, swim, wash and eventually eat.

 

Yes, people are drinking and eating shit.

Adam in India

I was recently in India, working on an upcoming Vanguard documentary on toilets – or the lack of toilets – for 2.6 billion people around the world. Two billion, six hundred million people who are shitting out in the open, straight into rivers, or into makeshift toilets that send untreated sewage straight into waterways.

Makeshift toilets

I took a short boat ride on the once-mighty but still holy Yamuna River, the vital waterway that serves New Delhi’s 12 million inhabitants. Today, people are shitting all over it. Literally. Our boat ride was absolutely wretched – easily the most awful stench I’ve experienced (and I say this after having spent three weeks filming open defecation). The river was literally bubbling with methane, the telltale sign of shit and industrial toxins. Along the river, people would shit in, then wash in this water. 

Bubbling river

Further downstream, people drink it.

Water source

As you might imagine, there are myriad public health issues this presents, and I’ll get into that in a later post.

 

But in the hopes that we think about water and sanitation tomorrow and the next day, Vanguard preparing a documentary about sanitation… or rather, TOILETS AND SHIT and the drive to make these “sexier” issues.

 

Over the next couple months, my producers and I will be updating you on our progress here on the Vanguard site. Please check in regularly for updates on this, and the other docs we’re preparing for you later this spring.

 

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has pulled together an excellent resource on water issues here.

  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Water Is Life,   vanguard blog,   1 more
  2. tags:
    India,  Water,  Rivers,  VG-blog-AY,  2 more
  3.     
    |

14 comments // A river of sh*t: World Water Day

  • planetjoseph
    • +1
      planetjoseph  

    • This is totally my soapbox. the need to make sanitation issues "sexier" to bring them more into the public conscience. 2 things: did you meet with Sulabh while in India? They are a great organization that works hard to provide toilets to everyone. ALso, have you read Rose George's fabulous book, The Big Necessity? Read it, it's all about the strange and fascinating world of humans and their shit.

    • 2 years ago
  • WTFitsMeSarah
  • JonRaymond
  • DreamRed
    • +1
      DreamRed  

    • thats aweful. something really needs to be done. These stories really open my eyes and I hope it reaches others as well.

    • 2 years ago
  • CalgarC
    • 0
      CalgarC  

    • i have the perfect water management system... "don't shower" lol you could also drink beer instead of water...

      i tend to use as little water as i can i shower less.. drink less water and more juice... small things like that, i even purify my own water sometimes :D

    • 2 years ago
  • lizziehoffman
  • cutee_leslie
  • CaptB
    • 0
      CaptB  

    • I wish people were as kind and rationale as you guys. This seems like a common sense theme. Unfortunately, when it comes to making a profit off of water this isn't such a clear cut topic as we would like it to be.

      Especially when large corporations dump their waste into our waterways worldwide.

    • 2 years ago
  • CaptB
    • 0
      CaptB  

    • I have been to some places overseas where you if you drink the local water you can contract amoebic dysentery, which I did indeed catch. The local population is not used to this flora either, so they just die if they can't afford the healthcare. People often die of diarrhea which culminates in dehydration. Third world nations need clean water.

      I hope that everyone understands that water should be a right...not a privilege as a human being.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ashley_Tolliver
    • +1
      Ashley_Tolliver  

    • This makes me sad. I think us as people in the world should raise more awareness for this issue people die of poisoness stuff in water. I will pray for an answer for these people

    • 2 years ago
  • Denica_Cassandra
    • +1
      Denica_Cassandra  

    • AH! cool piece, but scary and nasty. I have usually lived in places with great water - but I visited Washington, D.C. and the Arlington area a while ago and the water there tasted Weird... even the food we got tasted like the gross water.

    • 2 years ago
  • CaptB
    • 0
      CaptB  
    • Denica_test:

      I know Calcium and Magnesium will cause water to be, "Hard" and leave deposits in showers and bathtubs. These and other minerals can change the way water taste as well.

      I swear when I was in Hawaii for a number of years I could smell and taste fish in the water at my home. Being allergic to fish the water made me nauseated. Thank the God's for Crystal Light!

      Also, arsenic and toxic chemicals can do the same for taste.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ryan_McNeely
    • +4
      Ryan_McNeely  

    • This is what happens when technology precedes education. Sad thinig is that happens in every country even our own, just on different issues.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
Adam_Yamaguchi

top videos