I took this photo when I came down to Siliguri in North Bengal for my father’s treatment, and through this image, I wanted to portray what I had observed during my stay there.

From where we come, Sikkim, we face acute scarcity of water resources in urban areas. There are streams and rivers flowing by, but the polluted flow is not suitable for our use, and the situation seems to be getting worse by the year.

In this picture too my brother is staring at the bottle below the tap for a refill, but the water is not coming out of it; and just behind him, there is a drain where water is flowing but it is not for drinking.

The dreading scarcity of water in urban places is what I wanted to echo through this image.

Name: Chu Kingchum Lepcha

Age: 22, Male

Place: Sakyong, Dzongu, North Sikkim