RCB’s Suresh Goklaney Nominated For Rotary Responsible Business Honor at UN
From the United Nations’ earliest days, in the aftermath of World War II, the organization’s humanitarian mission has always dovetailed with Rotary’s efforts to administer aid and build peace.
Scheduled to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York City on 12th November, the theme for this year’s Rotary Day is ‘Responsible Business, Resilient Societies’. It aims to recognize Rotary’s role in creating a more just and equitable world, and will thus recognize six Rotary Responsible Business honorees and two business partners for their inclusive business practices and outstanding contributions to improving their communities.
Marking this momentous occasion for RCB is the nomination of Rtn Suresh Goklaney for his efforts to provide clean water in rural villages and impoverished urban areas throughout India, as well as the Jal Jeevan project which enables local women to generate income by selling clean water. To gain better insight into the initiative, we spoke to Rtn Suresh Goklaney, and here’s what he had to say…
Tell us about the Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment (EFIE) Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment is a registered public charitable organization founded in the year 2000. The main objective of this trust is to create environmentally conscious communities through various social initiatives and thus acting as a catalyst to bring about change in the society. Here’s a quick summary of the various initiatives undertaken:
- Euro ‘e’ Index: A ‘Pollution watch for Air & Water’ News program on NDTV
- Euro Enviro Quiz: for educating School Children on protecting the Environment
- Uniting to Safeguard the Environment (USE) Course: For engaging the employees of corporates in safeguarding the environment
- Euro Rainwater Harvesting: For creating awareness and setting up Rain Water Harvesting systems
- Community Water Plants: An initiative to provide safe drinking water in schools, colleges, hospitals, public places and communities across rural and urban areas
- Euro Enviro Park: A Model park set-up to educate communities about water conservation and rainwater harvesting
- Citizen Water Helpline: For stopping of leaking taps
- EuroAble: Customer Connect Centre managed by 100% differently abled
- Jal Daan: A mass movement for encouraging individuals to donate 5 liters of water every day to the less privileged
How did your association with Jal Jeevan come about?
Our dream is to provide safe drinking water to each and every Indian. Working towards this goal, we have already set up over 350 Community Water Purification Plants & Systems in rural areas and urban slums on pan India basis. Rotary has also been working extensively towards similar goals of providing water and sanitation which is one of their key thrust areas. We started our work with Rotary Club of Bombay in the year 2000 by installing Aquaguard Water Purifiers in various communities’ viz. schools, gardens, and police stations. However, we wanted to serve larger communities on a self-sustainable basis. That gave birth to our first Jal Jeevan Centre at the Rafi Nagar Slums in Govandi (which is one of the largest slums in Mumbai!) in June 2015. This plant is serving around 10,000 people every day and is run by ‘Muskan Mahila Bachat Ghat’, a self-help group (SHG) from the same community. The SHG sells water at a subsidized rate to the community and the income generated from this sale of water takes care of the operating expenses. This also creates a respectable source of livelihood, thereby making it a self-sustainable model. The success of this plant has created ripple effect and we have successfully installed our second plant in another slum area of Mumbai viz. Rathodi village, Malwani at Malad in October 2016.
Where do you envision this project to be in the coming years?
To begin with, EFIE has already signed a MOU with RCB for setting up 9 Jal Jeevan Centers in the urban slums of Mumbai in three phases. However, our vision is to set up 50 such plants in the urban slums of Mumbai with RCB. We are also working with other Rotary Clubs to spread this movement to achieve our goal of setting up 1,000 Community Water Plants across India over the next 3 years.