Delhi to Mumbai

From Agra it Aditya, Aruna, and I concluded that though we had good community connections there, the amount of work needed to set up a workshop there was more than we could commit to with our given capacity (me). We agreed that there is a lot of room for new approaches to development in Agra and that a co-creation design-build workshop model aimed at community youth would be worthwhile if we were able to build off of other organizations in the area. Unfortunately, those are too busy.

So we decided on a plan to visit some more organizations in Delhi and began planning a trip to Mumbai (aka Bombay) as well as a nearby rural area called Pabal. We gathered a list of people we'd like to get in touch with in these different locations and began meeting them while meanwhile discussing more and more how Aditya and Aruna's current situation might allow them to accompany me in this process of learning from other organizations' approaches to engaging communities with technologies that are meant to improve community health. Organizations on the list include, WSP, GIZ (formely GTZ), WaterAid, Chintan, Safe Water Network, and a few others including some individuals.

We had some luck in Delhi and got one field trip to see how a corporation was partnering with a non-profit to place a small-scale reverse osmosis (and soda ash and chlorine) water treatment plant in a rural area outside of Delhi. What we saw and heard was a bit shocking as far as how uninvolved community was and how they were trying to force-sell containers to the locals and get them to buy the water coming out. Questions of power, and appropriateness of technology aside, the water tasted great. And who's to say what is appropriate?

Next we were off to Mumbai, thanks to Aditya's train-purchasing skills. Here is where I learned that IRCTC's website makes for a much smoother ticket purchase than going in person. Catch is you need an Indian-accepted credit card.