What, why, when, where

Through the blessing of Paramhans Swami Maheshwaranand Ji Maharaj the charitable trust Shree Alakhpuriji Siddha Peeth and Yoga In Daily Life Foundation embarked on a project of delivering desperately needed drinking water to both humans and animals in western Rajasthan. The project started in October 2009 and will continue until the monsoon season in July 2010 or if necessary beyond that. It is Swamiji Maharaj's wish that no living being should be without drinking water in the period of drought that is affecting Western Rajasthan due to the failure of the monsoon rains. In that light the project, through Swamiji Maharaj's extensive network of followers in the local villages, focuses on finding those who are in desperate need and who don't have the possibility to get water through any government supply.

At present we are supplying water to the villages as follows:

Village	No of tankers for drinking water	No of tankers for animals	Total
Chapra	0	3	3
Dhanani	1	1	2
Dugastau	1	4 (2 for deer)	5
Rotoo	0	2 for deer	2
Arawar	0	1	1
Setudau	0	1	1
Ram Ji Guda	1	1	2
Jivat Kala	3	0	3
Desuri Girls Hostel	2	0	2
Nipal	0	4	4
Total	8	17	25

The government in general is trying to provide as many people as possible with drinking water. However they struggle to meet the demands and particularly struggle to meet the needs of the animals, both domestic and wild. The quality of water available is so bad that I saw cows that had drunk the local water and afterwards just sat down and could not move because of uncontrollable diarrhea. This is because of the heavy levels of flouride and salt in the water.

The efforts of the trust are also geared towards supplying water to marginal communities which are not covered by the government supply due to being either 1. unregistered, 2.nomads who are theoretically in the records not there or 3. those who may have fallen out with the local government officers due to all manner of reasons.

One tractor tanker has 5000-5500 litres of water. At present daily approx 130, 000 litres of water are being delivered.

The cost of one tanker of water delivered is on average 280 rupees (4 euros). Per day the expenditure is 100 euros and per month approx 3000 euros. The price will increase as water sources dry up and the water has to be transported even further than before.

The Trusts has also provided drinking water facilities by building drinking water troughs and digging a tube well to source water 5km from Khatu. These drinking troughs are providing water to 1000s of wild deer, goats and cows.

Although at present 25 tankers are being delivered there is a waiting list of more than 15 villages still hoping to get water supplied. The number of tankers delivered depends on funding which must be sufficient to be able to sustain that water supply through until July 2010.