Today was one of the worst experiences of my life. This morning we travelled about half an hour north to the town of Cuttack where there are hundreds of slums across the city. I have never, in my twenty six years, seen such deprivation and absolute poverty as I witnessed today.
We met one man who literally lived under a mosquito net with a piece of polythene on top. I couldn't quite work out if his wife was still alive, but all his children had died because of fever. This man had had chronic diarrhoea and was obviously jaundiced. This was a man who was dying in front of me. I asked Sunil (one of the WaterAid India staff) what the life expectancy is in the slums and he said people are lucky to live to 40. If I lived here, I would be lucky to survive another 14 years.
Then we went to the river, which was across the road. There were human faeces everywhere, to the point where you had to watch where you stepped. The stench was unbearable. And to top it all off there were children swimming and fishing in water that looked like something we would see at Waste Water Inlet works. This was too much for me and I broke down and cried. I don't think the slum residents knew why we were so upset. They have lived this way for most of their lives, some as much as 40 years.
This was just one slum of millions across India and the rest of the world. It doesn't have to be like this and it shouldn't. Please do what you can because this isn't humanity - this was hell on earth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
christina, nice to read about what's happening in India, makes you think about how lucky we are and nice to know that the work we do for Wateraid is worthwhile. Good luck with rest of the trip.
Lucy
Post a Comment