Persistent Like Water

Persistent Like Water (Reviving Dead Canals Through Sheer Perseverance)
Continued draught the past 3 years brought Matola to its knees. Women had to walk miles every day just to get drinking water. There were 3 canals nearby, but they were in bad need of revival. However, the revival process was a very costly affair and the village folk couldn’t afford to initiate the project. However, sheer determination and perseverance is like water that cuts through mountains and paves a way for itself. Tanishka women showed similar determination and persistence and brought water to the village when nobody could even dream of achieving such a feat.

KRA
Take the bold step to initiate the project and collect individual contribution from villagers. Start work on 8.5 km long canals in the hope that everything would work out fine in the end.

Three dead canals and one dam satiated the thirst of an area spanning 4000 acres in Latur. However, over the last 3 years Latur had been staring at the worst draught of the past 40 years. Womenfolk were forced to walk 6 km every day to fetch a pot of drinking water. Terana Dam was nearby, but the canals weren’t working. Tanishka ladies would meet once a month to discuss the community projects they could initiate, but would end up talking about the water scarcity. During one such meeting, they decided to take up the revival of dams as the next project. It was an impossible dream because of the staggering amount required for this massive project. Yet, the ladies decided to at least make a sincere effort.

The village had a population of 10,000 and the ladies asked everyone to contribute as much as they could and start the project in whatever money was collected. The contribution somehow reached the figure of Rs. 1 Lakh. Seeing the ladies’ determination, village leader Dhananjay Bhosale asked everyone to contribute Rs. 500 per acre of land they owned. For 4000 acres of land, the contribution reached Rs. 20 lakh and they started the project to revive the dams. However, everyone knew that this amount was not going to be enough. Seeing this effort by the villagers, 2 local MPs and 1 MLA also contributed Rs. 35 lakh. The project became talk of the district and the District Collector vowed to give total governmental support to the Tanishka Group’s initiative. The people whose fields were by the side of these canals paid from their pockets to extract the loose soil and make roads.

Before long, 1.25 crore rupees were collected and 8.5 km long canals of 10 meter width and 5 meter depth were created. Till last year, water wasn’t staying in these canals; now, they can store up to 40 crore litres of water!