Pipe Dream by Suraj Katra

2022 | Documentary | Hindi | 10 mins

Pipe Dream is a film about Jai Mati, a resident of an informal settlement in Mumbai, and his work navigating the complex process of applying for a water connection with the city authority. Home to nearly 1000 people, Siddharth Nagar does not have access to the city’s official water. Residents buy water from shops, transport containers from employers’ houses, and hire private water tankers to fulfill their water needs.

Owing to the overwhelming and intimidating nature of the process, many residents have accepted this reality and hold no hope for a legal water connection which in many ways is tied to ideas of citizenship, belonging, and legality. Since 2015, Jai Mati has painstakingly collected documentation, met with authorities, dealt with internal politics, educated himself and other residents on the constitutional remedies and dedicated himself to the goal of obtaining legal water.