Each one of us would have wanted to help, do a community service at one point or another in our life. Situations, circumstances, family, social and financial responsibilities would have had become a major setback.

 

Talks about environment protection is a hot topic at local, national and international levels right now. All the talks happening globally needs to be addressed. But, “HOW ???” is the question.

Environment protection is a big term. When it is broken down, to make a layman understand what it stands for and why it is necessary after all, every obstacle he encounters every single day, which is in and around him, is to be made realized as a big threat to the environment.

In the villages here in Haryana, the three main issues we come across in general are,

Haryana being a state with exploitation of water resources, both surface and subsurface, for a long time now, has led to depletion of the same causing scarcity. Due to lack of rain and water, the forest cover and vegetation of Haryana is minimal as it is. Even in this condition, wood is collected everyday to use as a fuel for cooking, even in the families having access to LPG. The chulhas use firewood, upple  (cakes) from dung, and also a practice here is to burn the plastics in the chulha as well while cooking food. The harmful effects of burning plastics on the environment as well as the health issues by inhaling the fumes is being neglected.

Hence, a better management of water, energy and plastic at a household level, by incorporating simple practices of change, is of utmost importance, so that, the collective effort of every household leads to a bigger impact and contributes towards protecting our environment.

 

What we are addressing…

Gray water (refuse water without faecal matter) forming slush on roads.

Firewood chulhas causing damage to the health of women as well as environment.

Plastic strewn in the village

Water management- Soak pits for safe disposal of gray water

Energy Management- Installation of domestic biogas plants as a source of green, continuous and renewable source of energy.

Plastic Management - Every child responsible for the plastic from his/her family, finally collected in an organized manner. Set up links to external agencies who buy the plastic thus collected.

 http://www.ecomena.org/plastic-waste-collection/

Monetary aid required…

Having discussed with the pioneers in domestic biogas plants, it was advised not to depend on the subsidies as it is only the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the central government, which is providing, and the time involved in getting them shall be too long But still, we are trying our level best to avail these subsidies, so that, the same amount of ₹30,000 costing one unit, once raised, can be utilized to build two units instead. Till then, we solely will be dependent on the funds raised here.

In case of Soak pits, they come under MNREGA only for the public places and for families that fall in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.

We are piloting this project working towards a holistic development of the village. This pilot shall help us in approaching companies with CSRs to scale up the project both in terms of the number of beneficiaries as well as to take it to other villages.

It is shocking to know that the villagers here, a family of five, earns about Rs 200-400 a day through labour in near by area. The minimum wage of Rs 201/day applies to the MNREGA which provides employment for one person in a family for a period of 100 days in an year. Thus, this project has been a hope for many villagers to afford better living conditions, and with your help, we can make it a reality.

So, if you have donated already, please help us by spreading the word to at least four people around you. If you haven’t donated, please consider helping us in our endeavour. No amount is small. Your generosity shall be highly appreciated as more the funds raised, more shall be the number of people we can reach.

Gratefully,