[pcpranav]

Date: 22nd May 2016
Place: around Jawhar, Dist. Palghar, Maharashtra
Vehicle: Mahindra Xylo


Im sure many of us are already involved in variety of activities for noble causes, assisting the society. Whenever possible, whatever possible, I try to do my bit for the under-privileged and unfortunate sections. Mostly during my road trips, I take along food items (grains, pulses, biscuits, chocolates, edible oil etc), or stationeries (books, pens, crayons etc).

I have some thought process, that money is not the only thing, though its important. Example: just donating money for a particular activity or to some organization. Hopefully, the rightful people would make best use of such monetary donations, but somehow it may leave you bit disconnected from the actual purpose. I have my own reason for mostly not directly attached to any specific NGO / organization. Rather, there is also need of resources at the ground level, or the execution level. Even that contribution would play a big role, and because of one’s active participation (time and efforts), the feeling of being connected and satisfaction is greatly increased. Mostly I try to be involved in the activity, and not just superficial. Ofcourse, its not always possible, because of many engagements of our routine lives. Don’t get me wrong, the whole idea of my article is – even if a cent I could inspire others. And secondly, as a traveller I would share details about the places we visit.

These days the water scarcity in various parts of country has already made big news, it’s a very serious issue. Its been exactly four years since I did my earlier trip, on same lines. Few weeks earlier, I had decided that I will again attempt to do my bit. I had told few of my very close friends, if they could join and actively participate in the goal. Time was running out, the summers were at the peak, and due to some or other engagements of mine, even the month of May was getting over. I finalized on a date – Sunday 22nd May 2016 and communicated to few of my friends.

The plan was simple: carrying drinking water to remote villages around Jawhar / Mokhada towns. Even last year I had been to Jawhar (saw the Sun Set point) and nearby Dabhosa waterfalls, that time distributed some grains in villages. I absolutely love this region, the vast hilly landscape, which becomes beautiful in monsoon. It’s the summers that cause real difficulties with severe water scarcity. Do refer my post on earlier trip, that time I was carrying 324 litres of water bottles (each bottle of one litre), but this time I had some bigger plans.

A friend of mine was tentative to join us, and in that case we would have two SUV cars capable of carrying more material, but he had to cancel due to some reasons. Another friend who was to tag along in my vehicle got ill, so he also couldn’t join, which he informed early morning of Sunday itself. Then who was accompanying me ?! Yes, again my dear friend DK (Dharmendra Kumaria), who had accompanied me in my previous trip, in the same region, for the same cause! On Sat 21st, after speaking to few water suppliers in my area, eventually went to the same shop which last time we had been. The guy was bit known to us. Even after discounts, the rate of 1 litre bottles was very high, and so we decided to take along 20 litres bottles. I got my car in front of shop, and the guy started loading the big heavy water bottles, totally to 22 bottles, that’s 440 KGS of weight. The third row seat of my car was folded to create this huge boot area. I wasn’t sure of the official load bearing capacity of my vehicle, but was also confident that it should not be much issue. Next we went to supermarket and purchased pouches of different grains, and packets of biscuits. Then got the tyre pressure checked at a shop. After fully loading, I parked my car for the night, and next day we had to start.


Map of the trip : https://goo.gl/maps/6gjb1c5og9S2

Picture of my loaded car :

Next day 22nd May, we started by 7.15am and filled diesel at a highway bunk near Vasai. We drove for sometime and stopped at Shree Dutt food mall near Manor for breakfast. We relished puri-bhaji, vada-pao, missal-pao. After driving a while, taking a right from highway, took the road towards Vikramgadh, and further ahead was Jawhar. Our plan was to distribute the 1st round of material to Dolhara village, ahead on Jawhar on the Khodala-Igatpuri road. And if possible we wanted to get some more water for 2nd round of distribution at some other village. On our way, we were trying to locate another shop which could supply us more water, but could locate any such big shop in Vikramgadh or Jawhar, still we continued ahead and decided to later figure out the material for 2nd round.


The weather was mixed for the whole day, sometimes it was bit overcast (rain clouds starting to appear), and majority of time it was really hot sun blazing with warm air breezing. On the way we saw many wells, hand-pumps and some smaller water bodies (ponds). I was very confident that most of these wells etc are already dried-up, and even the ponds were shallow with dirty water. Some of these wells are already deserted, and at some places the infrastructure build for water collection was in ruins because of no usage.

On the way, we kept seeing many females (women of varied age groups, from kids to aged), walking a long way to fetch water in their vessels, mostly placed over their heads. During long summers the wells gradually dry, and so people may have to walk more to identify another well which would be still wet (if not plentiful). In some small river stream, the people used to bath in same, wash clothes in same, and also take along water for their needs, such a pity state.

Me on the driving seat, and DK clicking a selfie :

(to be continued....)

[pcpranav]

After crossing Jawhar (a relatively bigger town in this area), we came across a well where few ladies were trying to fetch water. We got down to actually see what & how they are doing. On seeing, we were totally surprised, there was hardly any water in the well, and these ladies were trying hard to get the tiny bit of water in their plastic containers, after so much efforts standing in the blazing sun. The underground water stream was almost dried-up, and very slow dripping of water was happening in the well. As per these ladies, since ground water is very low these days, the slow dripping may take 1-2 hours to accumulate just about 1-2 litres water.

Video:

https://youtu.be/m6vjuJ1uaM4

We decided to distribute 2 cans from our car to these ladies, and called them. They were bit shy, surprised and later very happy to get some pure water. Also gave few biscuit packets to the kids.


DK distributing water :

Then we drove ahead, and on the way found this big academic institution, who was building the water storage tanks, which would help to conserve rain water of monsoon. The idea seemed quite good, as water from higher level will flow to the lower level situated tanks and even well will be re-charged, for later usage.

Just few kilometres before reaching Dolhara village (our destination for 1st round of distribution), we stopped at looking this vehicle. This tempo was fitted with a water filtration plant on-board (!), but the well from where it was sourcing water was too dirty ! We were very curious, how can such dirty water be purified by this ‘mobile’ filtration unit ? We had some talks with the vehicle owner and got details : The tempo (& plant) is run by a Pune based company, and there are two of such vehicles commissioned for Dolhara village ! These two guys were kind-of salaried by the Pune company, and would work for few hours per day in summer to fetch water from few wells, filter them and sell at nominal rates to villagers. It would take about 1.5 hours to filter 500 litres of water, and every two weeks the tanks & instruments needs to be washed/serviced to operate properly. The tempo is not very stable, often calls for maintenance, and not able to travel to unpaved or further hilly sections. The cost of water is roughly calculated by adding little profit, over the operational overheads (vehicle maintenance, diesel, plant maintenance etc). The cost would be Rs.5-7 for a vessel of 8-10 litres. Surely such prices seem to be negligible for most of us, and was far less than cost what we paid for our bottles. But actually only few villagers of this area are able to financially afford such drinking water! So for those who cannot afford to buy, they need to keep walking in search of any water body and collect whatever available for their daily usage.
Today found the details of this : http://scitechpark.org.in/category/scitech-jaldoot/

Looking at that dirty water from where the tempo guy had sourced, we had big doubts in its cleaning capability. The guy showed us a demo (filling one of our bottle which we distributed a while back), and we were absolutely surprised – green water (dirty) was converted into colorless water, with no smell. But frankly, we didn’t dare to taste that. We saw a young girl fetching water directly from the dirty well, not sure if that was for drinking or just other usage. We immediately offered the tempo guy a proposal – we will fund him for his costs for the whole day or even few days, in return he will freely distribute water to the poor who cannot afford to pay, but he refused. We even asked him if the purified water was anyways subsidized by any Village Institution or Government, but he denied so. We couldn’t exactly understand his business model or modus operandi, and finally left from there.

Video :

https://youtu.be/ZmK794AakTc

(to be continued...)

[pcpranav]

Driving another 3-4 kilometers we reached Dolhara village, and time was about 12.15 noon. It was really a small village, with population around 300-400 people; nothing much changed since I last came here 4 years back. Maybe situation would have worsened. After asking a villager, we located the Sarpanch’s house (Sarpanch = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarpanch ). The Sarpanch was a lady, met us along with her husband, and we explained our intention to come here. We requested them to call the nearby villagers along with their vessels and take the water. Even we ourselves called-out few villagers to come forward and collect drinking water. Soon we saw many ladies gathering near our vehicle, and one by one we started unloading and pouring water in their utensils. The temperature was high, and the weights of bottles was making bit tiresome. A villager helped us. They were really very delighted, and were saying good things to us – blessings for us, so nice of us, today is a very good day, etc. Then we started distributing pouches of grains, and biscuits to the kids. They all were overjoyed. There was some water leakages from the water bottles in my car, which I ignored to be cleaned later-on, and placed the empty bottles in the car.

We drove back to Jawhar and there at few shops inquired about the availability of big water bottles. We had decided, only after we do our arrangements for the 2nd round, we’ll have lunch. Luck favoured us, one guy directed us towards a lane which has a water supplier shop, wow! This family was running a mini water filtration plan, just within their house. They used to supply water to nearby houses and shop. We told our intention, and they were happy to hear it. The shop owner quoted us very reasonable rate for refilling water in our bottles, and we started the job. Again it was bit effort to carry & load these big bottles back to our car. During our talks with this gentleman, he informed us about himself associated to a NGO working on different social issues for the region. Owner aunty was very kind and patiently refilling all our bottles. The gentleman also mentioned that some other NGO recently funded a solar-based borewell in Hirve village, which is quite interior of Mokhada town, on further hilly place. Even government is trying to install more borewells in this overall region, but the works are pretty slow, and also ground water tables have depleted in most areas.

Warli paintings is a local paint art, very famous :

while I was lifting the bottle, DK said "smile please" !! we were enjoying.

Me and DK happy after the water refill important task for the 2nd round:

We left from there and had lunch in a New Shivneri Hotel, dhaba (a garden restaurant) pretty famous in Jawhar town. From another shop we purchased more biscuit packets. The time now was about 3.00pm. We drove back, cross Mokhada village and took the road ahead inquiring about Hirve to some people. From the Jawhar Phata (cross-road), right turn was towards Khodala-Igatpuri (and Dolhara village), and left was towards Mokhada and Hirve villages.

(to be continued...)

[pcpranav]

The roads were getting narrow, and many places un-tarred. At one section, it was totally offroad, but slowly I drove the loaded vehicle. I was driving slow, owing to the weight and also road condition. Enroute took pic of another dried-up well, later saw a borewell being constructed, and few ladies taking water from the hand-pump. Finally reached Hirve village, time would be about 4.00pm.

school:



off-roading !



a well installed in 2005, totally dry :






mangoes !


god temple:


new borewell being constructed :


hand-pump, but water is less :



another dry well :

There was a small well, in almost dried-up status, which still some ladies were trying to fetch a bit of water. We asked them to gather around the vehicle and started pouring water from our water cans, distributed biscuits to the kids. They were all very delighted, and giving us blessings, also saying water has no religion and so nice of us to deliver such pure water. Some were even murmuring that we should come daily! One of the family highly requested for black tea, and we couldn’t refuse seeing their genuine hospitality. The population was about 350 people in this village. They told that another NGO recently installed few solar-powered street-lights, and now it was good in night to have some light. The dried-up well may very slowly add few litres (based on the ground water channelizing), and they may have to climb down (even at night) inside the well and collect even those few litres. We were told that same road ahead will lead us to Jawhar, and no need to drive back on the bad off-road stretch.

In some time we reached Jawhar, and again sat in Shivneri dhaba for a nice tea. Yes, hot masala tea in this hot weather will still work to freshen up, that’s how its in India! It was a bit tiring and we had sweated a lot, but all this was just marginal looking that those villager’s conditions. While we were sipping tea, DK asked me and accordingly calculated the total cost towards this trip, and offered me half of his share. Actually, I had initially planned to put my personal contribution (though it was hardly few thousand rupees), but DK’s argument was towards total partnership in all aspects, and I respectfully agreed.

Me and DK were really happy that our objective was met and we started our return-home journey, time was about 6.15pm. DK said since its Sunday, as usual there would be heavy traffic jam while reaching near Mumbai and unnecessarily lot of time will be wasted, since we started late. Smilingly I told him that though we are late in our activity and we maybe get irritated by the jam ahead, but our inconveniences are way far less than the hardships these villagers has to be face every day. DK also agreed, and we continued our drive back.


Enroute we found this big snake crawling across the road, and we managed to click some pics.

We did get some traffic jam on the outskirts of Mumbai, and finally reach our home-area by 8.45pm. First we went to the water shop and returned back the bottles, and then went to a restaurant for food.
Overall it was a day full of activities, and brought a lot of personal satisfaction to us as well. Somehow, via our close friends and social networks, the news of our activity was spread to many more friends and acquaintances. They all were congratulating & praising us for the noble deed. We notified our other friends that next time we need their active participation, and attempt to work at grass-root levels.. Even the news already reached to my office colleagues (via-via messaging), and all my colleagues were appreciating our activity.

[Hurrycane12]

Hats off Pranav / DK : God bless you guys for the wonderful work you are carrying out.

[pcpranav]

found some more recent information about this area :

http://indianexpress.com/article/cit...eness-2779799/
Mr.Mushtaq Kotwal is the gentleman whom I met for water refilling at Jawhar. He runs the shop Jawhar Jal, and also associated with NGO Navoday Gramin Sanstha (http://www.indianngos.org/ngo_detail...prof=240362240)

water related problems in Hospital: http://indianexpress.com/article/ind...large-2768688/

hopefully its addressed: http://indianexpress.com/article/cit...nally-2781444/

[Rehaan]

Note from Mod: Split this new trip from your similar 2012 thread into a new one!

Great job!

[Srikanthan]

Originally Posted by pcpranav

They all were congratulating & praising us for the noble deed. We notified our other friends that next time we need their active participation, and attempt to work at grass-root levels.. Even the news already reached to my office colleagues (via-via messaging), and all my colleagues were appreciating our activity. [/left]
[/center]

Excellent work Pranav. God Bless you for the noble act.

My 2 cents here:

Next time, try giving few tree saplings to the villagers and explain them the importance of growing trees. Your first conversation may not be a success, but repeated dialogues will make them understand its importance.

Perseverance is the key to achieve such tasks.

My best wishes to continue your efforts.

[MS_Auto]

Wow Pranav. Indeed a noble deed.
Kudos to both of you for the amazing work that you guys did.

Note: Would it be possible for you to also share expense details? It could help other Team_BHP members, in case someone is willing to replicate the work that you have started.

[Car's Paradise]

Dear Sir,
Great social work by you i must say!!!
Looking at the pictures i feel, there is immense scarcity of water it that area. Lot of wells have dried up due to the extreme heat of summer.
You have contributed with, what is the extreme need of the people at their abode.
God bless you
Regards
Car's Paradise

[pawanarya]

Originally Posted by pcpranav

Date: 22nd May 2016

I have my own reason for mostly not directly attached to any specific NGO / organization. Rather, there is also need of resources at the ground level, or the execution level. Even that contribution would play a big role, and because of one’s active participation (time and efforts), the feeling of being connected and satisfaction is greatly increased. Mostly I try to be involved in the activity, and not just superficial. Ofcourse, its not always possible, because of many engagements of our routine lives. Don’t get me wrong, the whole idea of my article is – even if a cent I could inspire others. And secondly, as a traveller I would share details about the places we visit.

Those are some nasty pictures from ground zero dried up wells with bare and barren land. Kudos Pranav and Dharmendra on that spirited effort.

The next time you head out for a similar cause, maybe hoot at the T-BHPians and I am sure you will have a lot more people, cars and more importantly lot more water.

Cheers to both of you!

[Desmosedici]

Kudos to you guys. Great great job! Truly selfless and inspiring. Could you reach out to the bhpians here next time you plan to do something like this. Maybe we can slowly increase the water, food grains and biscuits with more people and more vehicles.

Cheers,
Raj

[SRKHYD]

Great job guys

We can easily get away with questions like "how much we can do" / "how big impact it will have" - but DOING is what matters. Take a bow !!

[AKTRACK]

Great work guys! A very noble gesture indeed.

I have myself been thinking of going for drought duty but for the lack of leaves from work. To be honest, its not that I am absolutely careless about my water usage but this drought has really made me think. The situation is really horrible. There was a recent news of a small girl who died because she had gone to fetch water in extreme heat. Made me really sad. The things that we really take for granted, people are dying to have them. I am now a days very very careful with the amount of water I use.

Someone rightly said - The world can be changed with one small act of kindness at a time. You have done your bit.

[lordvader]

Really really fantastic work!

It shows your courage and determination to make a difference and not just be a bystander in midst of a crisis.

I'm inspired.