Delhi is ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world. I returned here after 20 years and began to explore a little known network of streams that run throughout the city and my neighborhood in particular. Due to decades of negligence, what were once natural water bodies created by the topography of the land are now open sewers choked with trash. Locals refer to them as "nallah" (sewer). Untreated sewage and industrial effluent flows into these nallahs and then onto the heavily polluted Yamuna River. In some parts, the government has covered them with parks and in others the work remains incomplete. Covered or not, it is impossible to escape the stench and mosquitoes that rise from the water.
