A drought-hit field in Gangapur village in Latur district in Maharashtra. (Photo by Rahul S)
Rahul Shrivastav, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student from Mumbai, stumbled upon a news video highlighting the drought condition in Latur district, Maharashtra while casually surfing the Net one day. Deeply disturbed with the shots of parched lands and hapless people who were at the receiving end of the water crisis, Shrivastav decided to something to help the villagers of Gangapur in Latur. The drought has severely hit the village for the third consecutive year. The 200-odd households in the village receive water for just 45 minutes once in several days.
In the next few days, Shrivastav did the unthinkable. He and his friends raised enough funds to send water tankers to the village on a daily basis, for the next two months. Thanks to Shrivastav’s tireless efforts, around 12,000 litres of water is now being pumped into Gangapur daily. It isn’t enough for an average city dweller, but it certainly means a lot to the people living in the drought-hit village. “The shots of hapless villagers highlighted the severe water crisis in Gangapur. I quickly sent a message to my friends over social media, and they responded enthusiastically. Within a span of five days, I had collected more than Rs 60,000,” said Shrivastav.
The village is divided into 30 lanes with about 200 people living in each lane. They have three water taps among them, which they flock once a month to avail their share of water. Water for these taps comes from a common well, on the outskirts of this village, on a rotational basis. “Gangapur is one of the worst affected villages. With this initiative, every household gets about 30 litres of water per day in addition to what they get with the Government’s intervention,” he added.
It was not an easy task to raise funds for this initiative. Apart from his friends and families, a foundation, Muse, also contributed generously to ease the water crisis in the village. All these efforts are in addition to the drought relief work undertaken by the Maharashtra state government. “Villagers are leaving Gangapur in hordes and migrating to the cities. The water crisis has worsened over the years. There has been no agricultural activity here which means no money to survive. People in the towns don’t understand how precious water is for us. We are grateful to people who are coming forward to help us in whatever possible way they can,” said the village head, whose son coordinates with Rahul’s group.
Around 27,723 villages in Maharashtra have been declared drought hit. The central government has allocated Rs 3,050 crore for relief work in the drought affected areas. However, only 25% of this amount has been sanctioned so far. Today five special trains carrying five lakh litres of water reached Latur district.