India Post News Service
MILPITAS, California: Overseas Volunteers for a Better India) (OVBI) will hold its annual fundraising event September 15 with an immediate goal to eliminate water poverty in 500 villages in India by 2020. The event will educate and inform the public on the severity of the crisis, as well as share the successes that OVBI has had in tackling the problem in rural India, according to a press release issued in this connection.
The event to eliminate water poverty will be held at the India Community Center in Milpitas with nearly 500 supporters expected to attend. Leading subject matter experts and executives including Raju Reddy, former CEO of Sierra Atlantic and Rathi Murthy, CTO of Gap, will share their thoughts on how non-governmental organizations, such as OVBI, are shining a light and making a significant impact on this critical issue.
Currently, 54 per cent of India faces extremely high water stress. Women have to walk miles to procure water, farmers live in deep financial distress, and major cities such as Chennai are running out of water. The UN has warned of civil unrest if urgent steps are not taken to address this problem.
Over the last three years, OVBI has been working on a war footing to avert this national crisis. In 2019, partnering closely with government bodies, ex-Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists, NGOs and local communities, OVBI will complete projects to eliminate water poverty in 105 drought-stricken villages across the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The interventions include the construction of micro recharge structures, de-silting of water ways, and building check dams to allow water to percolate and refresh underground aquifers.
“We started with just one village in 2017 with a significant initial investment of $70,000. Subsequently, our ability to engage with local partners including ex-ISRO scientists, and leverage government and CSR funds, enabled us to significantly increase our operational efficiency and thus have an outsized impact. Therefore, we have been able to scale rapidly to now positively impact 105 villages, with an average investment of about $1500 per village of 2000 residents”, says Mohan Trikha, chairman of OVBI.
These water infrastructure projects have created 1.6 billion gallons of additional water capacity and positively impacted over 160,000 rural villagers. Building on this strong foundation, OVBI is on an urgent race to eliminate water poverty in 500 villages next year and then 5,000 villages by 2023.
“While the immediate charter for OVBI is to increase water capacity, this alone is not enough to completely solve the problem. In order to ensure a permanent solution, we have to increase greenery as well as create economic incentives for farmers to grow crops with lower water needs”, says Satej Chaudhary, president of OVBI.
“Our vision is to completely transform India from a state of water poverty to water plenty by 2030. You can eliminate water poverty in a village with a gift of $1500. We encourage civic minded citizens to adopt one or more villages, so we can reverse this vicious cycle”, says B.V. Jagadeesh, co-chairman of OVBI.
OVBI is a registered non-profit based in the United States with a mission to accelerate social impact projects in India. For more information and to donate please visit – http://eliminatingwaterpoverty.org/ or reach out to us at info@overseasvbi.org
