The importance of lakes as a water source can also be seen from the fact that in South Kashmir’s Panzath Nag, there is an annual festival to clean the water body from debris, weeds, and sediment to ensure clean water supply throughout the year. This activity was mooted by 90 year old Ghulam Nabi who makes it a point to support the initiative every year.
Datta Patil from Halgara in Latur, Maharashtra, has spent his own funds to recharge the groundwater level of the village that was always known to have severe water shortages. Hailed as the real life hero whose work mimics the work done by actor Shah Rukh Khan in the film Swades, Patil has desilted canals and built over 26 check dams and has changed the face of the village despite working in California. Likewise, R. Manikandan has been working tirelessly to resurrect rivers through his NGO Kovai Kulangal Padhukappu Amaippu or the Coimbatore Ponds Protection Organisation in Coimbatore. He and his team have cleaned four lakes and rejuvenated 13 pounds in the region, and his mission is to conserve every drop of water. Here are some other people who are working on making a difference.
Amla Ashok Ruia: The 78 year old Ruia has been working tirelessly in the field of water harvesting by constructing check dams in Rajasthan, known to be a drought prone region. Through Aakar Charitable Trust, her NGO, she has built 664 check dams and 128 ponds that have helped 883 villages and 13,17,568 people, directly or indirectly. With check dams in place, the farmers now grow three crops annually and have been able to continually increase the area of cultivable land year on year. What this has meant is that there has been a reduction in people moving out of the rural belt to urban cities as well as helping women work on providing water for the households. Buoyed by the success of the project, their goal now is to construct 200 check dams per year across the country.
Aabid Surti: 89 year old Aabid Surti runs the Drop Dead Foundation, his one-man NGO that fixes plumbing problems, especially water leaks that cause water wastage in Mumbai households. Having started in 2007, he has saved over 30 million litres of water simply by fixing leaky taps. Working in Mumbai’s Mira Road, he can be seen working every Sunday with his plumber fixing leaking taps across homes in the area. What started this was when he visited a friend’s home and heard a leaking tap that was not fixed even months after he revisited him. He started his NGO when he was 72 and continues to fix taps as most people complain that plumbers are not available for ‘small jobs’. Interestingly he has come up with creative posters to drive the message of water conservation by using messages from holy books to appeal to people’s religious sentiments to save water. These are present not just in temples, mosques, and churches, but even the police stations, where the police have asked him for copies to be used to help criminals understand the need to save water. “All Ganesh pandals on Mira Road had a poster where Ganesha asks people ‘if there is no water where will you immerse me?’ Also, at the mosques I put a poster in the place where people wash their hands with words of the Prophet and I was told that earlier 85% of the water in the tank was used but now 85% of the water is remaining in the tank. So, the impact is phenomenal,” says Surti.
Rajendra Singh: 65 year old Singh, or the ‘Jal Purush, Waterman of India’ has worked steadfastly on reviving traditional techniques of storing water in many villages of Rajasthan. he founded Tarun Bharat Sangh in 1975 and has worked to build over 14800 water structures in the region. This has ensured that 1500 villages are now water secure and 14 rivers have now been revived, ensuring that 10600 square kilometre area has been able to buckle the impact of climate change. And what makes this special is that this is the only example of its kind in the world. In the crime hit Chambal region, his leadership has led to people giving up arms and working towards their livelihood as water is now available easily. His body of work spans 49 years now and his work in the field of traditional water conservation, restoration of groundwater reserves and community management of natural resources has had a far reaching impact in drought prone Rajasthan. His success mantra is all about ensuring community involvement, policy, leadership, and use of local knowledge to come up with solutions that are best adapted to the local region.
Read about other Lake Warriors in the story that first appeared on Fair Planet here:
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