Help Kanheri village fight the Battle against Drought

Greetings!

I am Mohan Bhatkar, working as an Engineering Manager at Rakuten, an IT firm in Tokyo (Japan). My native place is Kanheri, a small village in Barshitakli taluka, Akola district in Maharastra state, India. I am running this campaign on behalf of all the villagers of Kanheri who are facing water crisis since last couple of years and who are equally motivated and dedicated to solve this problem.

People from my village, Kanheri are putting a tremendous effort to fight this battle against drought and we are collecting funds from various sources  to conduct below watershed development work for conserving water.

work category	water storage capacity per unit	number of units	cost per unit (INR)	total estimate (INR)	sources of fund
soaking pit in every home	80 litre (for home of 4  person)	700	~1,300	9,10,000	government scheme
Continuous Contour Trenches	5400 litre	250	N/A	N/A	voluntary work
Loose Boulder structures	unknown	10	N/A	N/A	voluntary work
Dug Well and Tube Well Recharge	unknown	N/A	N/A	N/A	voluntary work
tree plantation	unknown	5000	N/A	N/A	donation from various nurseries
Earthen dam construction  (volume : 4m high * 6m wide *  500m long)	7000000 litre	1	~5,00,000	~5,00,000	donations from fundraiser(Milaap), private individuals and groups , resident and non  resident villagers

Most of the work will be done voluntarily by villagers but we need funds for JCB machinery, materials used for work and mainly construction of earthen dam (cost estimate ~5,00,000 INR) to store more than 70,00,000 litres of water.

A total of 2,12,500 INR is already collected with gracious contributions from many people in Japan and India. Your valuable addition to this will make a huge difference in solving this serious issue and saving the environment.

If you truly believe in this cause, please spread the message and contribute by donating on this page.

Many a times we simply blame government, nature or our surroundings for all the problems we face - including drought and water scarcity. But there are people, as well as government and non-government organizations that actually do something about these problems. It is my firm belief that India is making tremendous progress because of the drive and passion of such people and organizations.

I initially heard about a movement led by Paani foundation in coordination with the Government of Maharashtra from my younger brother, Sandip Bhatkar. The intent of this movement is to make the state of Maharashtra drought free. Sandip actually took this initiative for our village, and while
I felt proud that he is a part of this effort, I couldn't think about how I could potentially contribute to it.

On digging deeper into the issue, I was simply awestruck by the amount of effort put in by the Paani foundation team, government and all the villagers who are trying to solve the problem of water crisis. The idea of empowering people to solve water crisis by watershed management may seem challenging at first, but Paani foundation along with government has already done
this in pilot edition of Satyamev Jayate water cup in 2016. I am sure  Satyamev Jayate water cup 2017 will be a huge success as well!

From my village Kanheri, 5 people - Pravin Gaigol, Tulshiram lothe, Ram Tapre, Jyoti Nikole and Shantabai Bhatkar (my mother), have already taken training of watershed management conducted by Paani foundation for Satyamev Jayate water cup 2017. Many villagers have united to make our village drought free.

I feel uniting all the people in this movement is challenging but crucial to its success. In spite of being far away from my fellow villagers, I feel deeply about this effort and I am trying my best to help them.I and my younger brother are sharing this issue with as many people as we can in Japan and India, and we are highly motivated by the support and response we have gotten so far.

We have composed a short movie that highlights the water conservation work we have undertaken and the support we have gotten so far.
Please spare 5 minutes of your valuable time to watch the movie on the links below.

Kanheri water conservation work

Also check our social media awareness campaign and presentation for water conservation work on below links.
Facebook awareness campaign
Presentation for water conservation

Satyamev Jayate water cup 2017 will be held from 8th April to 22nd May, 2017. I salute the hard work being done by Paani foundation team, government, all the villagers who are the actual heroes of this movement and millions of people from different walks of life who have joined this movement.

Paani foundation does not provide any funds for this work since they want people from every village to take ownership and be self sufficient to solve this problem. So please help Kanheri village to become self sufficient in solving this water crisis.

Warm Regards,
Mohan Bhatkar
Engineering Manager, Rakuten Inc. Tokyo, Japan
email : mohanbhatkar97@gmail.com
Tel : Japan(+818044013989) India(+919766238800)
Address(Japan) : yokohamashi, aobaku, aobadai, 1-9-2 311 Japan
Address(India) : At post. Kanheri sarap, Tq. Barshitakli, Dist. Akola, 444401 Maharashtra, India