The theme for World Water Day on 22 March this year is 'Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge'. In response to this the ESRC STEPS Centre, based at IDS, today launches a new film called 'Water and justice: Peri-urban pathways in Delhi'.

This short film tells the story of three people and their relationship with water in the towns and villages on the edge of Delhi, India. The landscape of these 'peri-urban' zones has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. Poor people often do not have good enough access to water, and have to find different ways of getting and using it. This film shows the ingenuity and determination of three people - a grandmother, a farmer and an activist - who have taken action to get better water for themselves and their families.

Lyla Mehta, IDS Research Fellow says: 'This film highlights the fact that mainstream strategies for water supply and management are failing the peri-urban poor in India. We must recognise and understand informal responses on the ground and support sustainable alternative water management pathways.'

The film will be screened at the STEPS Centre Water and Sanitation Symposium 'Liquid Dynamics II: Some for all? Pathways and Politics in Water and Sanitation since New Delhi 1990' on 22-23 March 2011 at IDS.

The aim of the STEPS video project is to translate key development research messages into informative films to reach a variety of target audiences. Working with production company Speak-it films and filmed on location in India, this is the first of two films in the project.

Melissa Leach, Director of the STEPS Centre says: 'Conventional pathways to accessing water have failed poor peri-urban dwellers, but through their knowledge, creativity and informal organising, people are finding alternative pathways - albeit still on the margins and sometimes hidden. Through focusing on water, the film shows part of the unique challenge that peri-urban areas present for sustainability, and for the people who live there... We hope the film will contribute to the wider debate about how to link justice and sustainability in these places "on the edge": to do this, we need to recognise, respect and build on what poor women and men are already doing.'