Somenath Mukhopadhyay is an amateur photographer and a teacher of a higher secondary school. His work primarily focuses on people and the environment and in particular in the areas of agriculture, human health, water and food security and climate change.

The boy in this photo is collecting water from a dried up pond in Birbhum, a district in West Bengal, India. The district is known for its arid soil and sparse vegetation. Climate change and extreme weather conditions have marginalized communities such as Birbhum that rely on its surroundings for food and shelter.

The Allard Prize Photo Competition jury selected this photo as it highlights the basic human rights issue of access to safe drinking water.

Women perform a ritual in the Yamuna River in India, celebrating a religious festival, honouring the river. The beautiful scene is incongruous with its reality: the women wade in deeply toxic water, the foam produced by chemical pollutants dumped into the river by surrounding factories.

The Yamuna river is the second-largest tributary of the Ganges River, which Is considered holy by Hindu people. The river is one of the main water sources for the 19 million inhabitants of Delhi. But the enormous demands on the river have left it polluted. Colossal quantities of water are siphoned from the river to irrigate local farmlands and provide clean water for Delhi. By the time the river reaches the city, the fresh water of the Yamuna is largely replaced by household sewage and industrial waste, creating a stagnant pool of toxic water.

Lack of oversight and safeguards combined with rapid urbanization have created unreasonable demands on the city’s infrastructure. Approximately one-third of Delhi residents live in illegal settlements lacking sanitation infrastructure, and their wastewater flows directly into the river untreated. Industry and manufacturing also heavily pollute the Yamuna; leather treatment, garment dyes, and other manufacturing produce significant chemical-laden wastewater that is dumped into the river. Delhi does have regulations on wastewater treatment and dumping, but corruption is rife, enforcement inconsistent, and competing and overlapping jurisdiction over the river largely prevents real accountability.

Two men burn electronic waste at the Agbogbloshie dump in central Accra, Ghana, one of the largest e-waste dumps and one of the most polluted places in the world. The dump receives close to 250,000 tons of e-waste each year, although experts suggest this figure is likely much higher.

Every day, an estimated 10,000 informal workers sort through mountains of e-waste, without protective gear or proper equipment, looking for valuable elements such as copper and gold. This dangerous work is largely carried out by the poor, many of whom are migrant workers from northern Ghana and neighbouring countries.

The adjacent settlement to the dump is home to approximately 80,0000 residents. The burning of e-waste components produces toxins that pollute the air and leech into nearby soil and groundwater, causing both workers and nearby residents to develop serious health conditions, including chronic headaches, skin disorders, hearing loss, DNA damage, respiratory illnesses, organ damage, immune system dysfunction, and cancer.  Exposure to these toxins also results in premature births and stillbirths, as well as congenital malformations, developmental disabilities, and behavioural changes in children. The local food supply is increasingly dangerous, with a single egg of an Agbogbloshie chicken found to contain 200 times the accepted European limit of chlorinated dioxins, which can cause long-term reproductive and developmental harm.

Developed countries export large volumes of second-hand computers and other electronic goods for “resale,” but the percentage actually resold or recycled is unknown. A 2019 study reports that 50 million tons of e-waste are generated each year, a figure expected to double by 2050, with only 20% of this waste properly disposed of or recycled. As consumption of electronic devices increases around the world, regulations for e-waste recycling and disposal are crucial to protect workers, citizens, and the environment.