Jal Jeevan For Dhule

By PP Sandip Agarwalla

Bleary-eyed we boarded the early morning flight, yesterday, March 6th, 2020 to Aurangabad from Mumbai at the unearthly hour of 4.45 am ! Immediately after landing our group of five persons from the Rotary Club of Bombay – myself, my wife, Malini, Rtn. Abhishek Saraf and his wife, Radhika and Rtn. Abhishek Sharman set off for Dhule (Dhulia) on the well-worn and often bumpy roads for a tedious 4 ½-hour drive.

There, we branched into two teams dividing ourselves to inspect and inaugurate the two Jal Jeevan Safe Drinking Water facilities we had installed at the Lamkani and Sarwe villages (totally we’ve created 35 such facilities in 35 villages across Maharashtra). Greeted enthusiastically by the ever-grateful village populace we were welcomed amongst much fanfare and dance performances by the children. After the perfunctory cutting of the ribbons and speeches, we
indulged in the usual tetea- tete sessions which is my favourite part of the entire activity. Besides an opportunity for relationship building it gives us a chance to understand how our rural brethren are faring and what other needs they may have.

A pattern which has emerged of late is the demand for chillers to deliver cold water to the consumers in 20 litre jars which I found a bit “jarring” (pardon the pun!). I explained that if it was a glassful, it made sense but how would chilled water in a 20 l jar to be consumed over the next 24 hours and thus lose its cooling, make sense ? But the villagers insisted and persuaded us to promise them a retrofit of these chiller units. It will be interesting to assess its outcome. I suspect it would be of immense popularity in the torrid heat of the coming summer months where temperatures routinely hover between 40- 45 degrees C. We promised them a library each too for their effervescent and giggling youngsters.

Having satiated our thirst for reactions and knowledge, we set off once again. Some of us trundled back to Aurangabad but the majority of us decided to drive another four hours and landed up in the holy town of Shirdi. Today, we eagerly await the darshan and blessings of Shri Sai Baba after which we connect back to Mumbai via the evening flight which leaves us the Sunday of the weekend to reflect and recover from what was an exhausting trip, what with us putting in more than 10 hours on the road in one day. This is what makes Rotary worthwhile and the fun and bonding on such trips between members are the memories which linger forever. No one remembers the rigour or fatigue ! This marks the completion of Phase 2 of our Jal Jeevan drive in rural Maharashtra. Great work all around by Abhishek Saraf, Abhinav Aggarwal, Abhishek Sharman, unsung heroes and members of team Jal Jeevan of the Rotary Club of Bombay, our sponsor Rtn Dilip Piramal and VIP Industries, our social worker and project manager Nikhil, our NGO partner AVGSS and of course the indefatigable Joel from Eureka Forbes so ably supported by his colleagues Samiran, Pradeep, Vandana and Rajib ! Now, onwards to Phase 3 !