NGO Manages To Dispatch 54 Lakh Litres Of Water To Drought Struck Village In Marathwada

Admin 25-May-2016 13:56:53 Inothernews

NGO Manages To Dispatch 54 Lakh Litres Of Water To Drought Struck Village In Marathwada


The small yet determined group of volunteers and activists of Fulora Foundation have managed to distribute close to 54 lakh litres of water in the drought affected regions of Beed in the past 25 days, much to the appreciation of citizens. Famous activist Mayank Gandhi of Fulora Foundation said: "The conditions in Beed, Parli areas are very bad as there is an acute shortage of water. Through public generated funds, we have been arranging water tankers to supply water to close to 34 villages of Beed, covering a population of over 50,000. We have decided to adopt 15 villages for now so that even when the monsoon season arrives, we can guide them about various ways of conserving water through water harvesting, bore-wells etc. What happened in the summer of 2016 here must not be repeated again,'' Gandhi, who was earlier campaigning for India Against Corruption, added that training for water harvesting and bore well recharging for youth in 15 villages of Beed will begin from May 24.



A Navi Mumbai based activist, Ravi Srivastava, who also visited Beed earlier this month as part of the NGO's water distribution, told TOI:

"It is heartening to see that our team has managed to cover so many villages in Beed, but two factors were major drawbacks in this endeavor. While the tanker operators lobby used to often jack up their rates on a day-to-day basis, the caste discrimination observed in almost every village show how deep this social backwardness was."

Srivastava said that they were sometimes forced to offer water to a particular caste and community, and later separately gave away the remaining to another underprivileged group. he added.

"Mostly the women, elderly and small children were seen in the villages, while many houses were locked. It is not easy surviving in these regions. Yet, despite the adversity, we were surprised to see the caste system still going strong. Apart from water harvesting, we will also gently try to dissuade the villagers to shun such orthodox practices,''

Earlier this month, a Dalit man, Bapurao Tajane, of Kolambeshwar village in Malegaon taluka, had on his own dug up a well to strike water within a period of 40 days, after his wife was denied the right to take water from another village well by an upper caste villager.

While Tajane was lucky to have found water after the frenzied spell of digging to overcome the humiliation his wife had undergone, Srivastava said that their NGO is committed to ensure that all people have equal rights to food, water and dignity. Fulora Foundation is urging citizens to come forward and donate funds for the future well being of the poor in drought hit areas.

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