Bheri Culture, East Kolkata Wetlands

The city of Kolkata, home to twelve million people, has no conventional sewage treatment facility. Instead, this function is undertaken by communities of fishers who farm the East Kolkata Wetlands via a traditional method of pisciculture that utilizes the city’s sewerage discharge. The bioremediation and reuse of sewage to support pisciculture and agriculture has long been recognized as a possibility for radically improving urban sanitation, especially in developing countries where it can provide a viable means to support poor communities through processes of resource recovery and circularity that generate sizeable environmental, economic and social benefits. The initiatives support the livelihoods of 30,000 urban poor, remediate a third of Kolkata’s raw sewerage, and supplies 150 tons of fresh vegetables and fish to the greater City of Kolkata daily. Site visits were conducted at 24 bheris (traditional pisciculture enterprises) with and in-depth evaluation of Mudially Fishermen’s Cooperative Society.