Drinking water pool inauguration:
Rotary Club of Pune Metro jointly with grampanchayat Phalōdē, taluka Ambegaon, District Pune, the water tank was deepened in the month of May to resolve the drinking water problem in nande vastiof village Phalode. The lake was inaugurated on 17-8-2019 as it is full of water due to rain.
The President of the Rotary Club of Pune Metro Mukund Cipḷunkar, Sunil Gokhale, Makarand Phadke, Datta Deshpande, secretary Sneha and grampanchayat Phalōdē’s Deputy Sarpanch Manohar Memane, ex. Sarpanch Ashok Pekari, the contractor Amol Bengde, many villagers and rotary club members were present in large numbers.
Project Details:
Imagine the plight of a village in the 21st century, which receives an annual rainfall above 2000 mm, all in the four month monsoon season, yet is not able to provide the requisite quantity of water to meet the basic drinking water requirements of its inhabitants for more than 6 months in a year from January to June. This village is Phalode in the Ambegaon Taluka of Pune District which has a population of approximately 500 humans and 450 domesticated animals. The village is located atop a narrow plateau which does not have any stream or rain catchment above it, this geographical feature is the basic cause of its woes.
Scarcity of water has a debilitating effect on the quality of life; it means the villagers cant afford to use toilets even if they build them, they cannot grow more than one crop, besides the effort to fend for water consumes most of day, leaving precious little time to the inhabitants for improving their lot through education, secondary employment and other economically beneficent activities.
Over a period of time the district administration has built five percolation tanks and one Shiv kalin type of Taki in the catchment areas of the slopes going down the plateau, these do get filled up very early in the monsoon season, however they totally dry up within two months of the termination of the monsoon season due to the water seeping out from the porous surfaces of percolation tanks. There are only two wells in the village, these also dry up in the summer season.
An analysis of the situation reveals that the strategy to address the situation lies in a mix of being able to trap and store enough of the rain water, by creating water proofed reservoirs within or adjacent to the existing percolation tanks, this will ensure that the water trapped in the monsoons does not seep out (as it happens through the porous surfaced percolation tanks) and can be available for use in the dry summer season. The other complimentary strategy is the afforestation of barren land atop the plateau and its slopes, to help raise the water table of the plateau, which will enable perennial capability to the water wells.
As part of an integrated village development plan, in the first phase, Rotary Club of Pune Metro (RCPM) has taken upon itself to assist the villagers to solve their water problem by creating a water storage capacity of 100 lakh litres to meet the needs of the dry season period from January to June. This will act as a catalyst to solve the other problems such as unemployment, low farm income, malnutrition and community health. As part of preliminary action of the first phase, in May 2019, RCPM has already increased the water storage capacity of the Shiv Kalin Taki from 4 lakh to 16 lakh litres by utilising Rs 7.88 lakhs of its Charitable Trust Funds.
Rotary Club of Pune Metro Charitable Trust (RCPMCT) is registered with the Charity Commissioner; it is managed professionally by our Club in an absolutely transparent manner, income tax returns of RCPMCT are filed every year on time. The donations to RCPMCT qualify for deduction from income, under section 80 G of Income tax rules. RCPM has a wide range of experience in executing social welfare projects in various fields. RCPM has expended over Rupees Two Crore over the past two years in executing social welfare projects. We seek generous donations to our trust fund to help us to resolve the water problem of Phalode, as also of other needy villages in rural Maharashtra facing a host of problems including that of water.
