Salesians focus on ensuring clean water access in drought-prone region

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra in India are working with Maharashtra’s most marginalized communities to uplift lives through sustainable development and self-reliance.

Since its inception, Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra has facilitated life-changing integrated water projects in 27 villages across the state, recharging aquifers, and helping more than 47 villages. Interventions like check dams, farm ponds and soil conservation methods created decentralized drought-proofing models and have impacted more than 15,000 families.

Bhamabai, a 53-year-old woman who lives in a mountainous village in Ahmednagar, walks five kilometers each day to a hand pump in order to secure a few liters of water before returning home. She says, “My age is catching up, and so is my sickness. I dream of the day when we can turn a tap and quench our thirst.”

Several years of below-average rainfall have led to water insecurity, and Salesians are working to replenish empty household tanks with clean drinking water during the summer heat. Over 1.6 million liters of potable water has been distributed to 14 villages.

“My grandchildren crowd around the tanker with pure joy and wonder. To them, and all of us, that’s what clean water feels like these days — a miracle,” said Parubai Rathod, a tribal migrant settled in Ahmednagar.

Human actions have worsened the situation. Rapid industrialization and deforestation, poor farming methods, and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides all make the soil lose its water-holding capacity.

“Organic and sustainable farming are very crucial for water conservation. Hence, we help these farmers implement it so that the groundwater level increases and their future generations don’t face the same problem,” explained Dattatrey Gaikwad, senior staff at Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra.

Salesian efforts empower villagers with tools and knowledge for effective water management and sustainable farming practices. Father George D’Abreo, director of Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra, said. “Our dream is to make clean water sustainable and permanently accessible across every village — from fulfilling these emergency needs to empowering communities for the long-term through watershed management.”

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – India – A Dream Called Water: Ankita Shelke

Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra

Salesian Missions – India

World Bank – India