Featured Project: Varkhadiya Rainwater Harvesting

by Irene Moskowitz

Tuesday September 1, 2009 at 1:45pm, EST

Meet Varkhadiya, a village in the Mehsana District of Gujarat, India.  In Varkhadiya, drinking water is a major problem. Most of its wells are almost dry, many are so poorly constructed that they are dangerous to use, and another draws tainted water from a pond used to wash cattle.  Fluoride in the water that is available causes joint problems.  Also, the lack of a proper drainage system leaves puddles of filthy water in the village, inviting disease. Read more

Two citizen philanthropists have already begun to help Varkhadiya resolve its water issues.  Last year, Paul and Preston hosted the music festival Osyrusfest and raised more than $1,000 to repair two wells in Varkhadiya and establish pulley systems and safety barriers to make it easier and safer for women and children to draw water from the well.  Fundraising has just been completed, and construction will begin soon!

This project will continue to help the residents of Varkhadiya get clean water by building a roof rainwater harvesting system with an accompanying hand-pump, which will allow villagers to capture the water during the monsoon season, filter it and store it in storage tanks during the dry season.  This will provide 550 families with clean water that they can drink year-round and that women can use to manufacture detergent and incense sticks, providing additional income for their families. 

But there is another benefit to roof rainwater harvesting tanks: they are sustainable.  NASA recently reported that the groundwater in northern India is quickly being depleted by human activity and warned that if people don’t begin to use sustainable methods of obtaining water, India’s agricultural output will suffer and severe water shortages will result.  Roof rainwater harvesting tanks, which use rainwater as opposed to groundwater, will help prevent this from happening.

Become the Citizen Philanthropist for this project, and partner with Varkhadiya to provide water that will help improve the health, sanitation, and livelihood of the villagers in a sustainable way!