The Summer is moving in

Hari Om,

Kumbh Mela is going on and many of the members of the Ashram are busy there but in Rajasthan summer has already moved in. The temperature has already topped 42 degrees and is staying  in the 40s basically every day. Sourcing decent water supplies is getting more and more difficult. For example even in the Ashram where we generally have a good supply of water the borings are showing signs of drying up. In order to save water the taps in our bathtrooms and toilets have been disconnected and everyone brings their water with buckets to the rooms. When you have to carry the water you automatically use a lot less!! The conditions in the village areas are inevitably much tougher than in our Ashram where rainwater harvesting is well established.

I returned back from the Kumbh 3 days ago for a quick visit to Pali and Jadan. Today whilst travelling around in the villages I saw evidence of just how serious the situation is. My journey was only 10 km but on the way I saw probably 7 or 8 carcasses of dead wildlife lying in the fields. They were all young animals, not ones that would have passed away of old age so I presume that they have passed away from lack of water or from improper water. All this at the start of summer, with 4 months until the monsoon.

Our efforts to supply water are going on continuously. We have increased the number of places and quantity of water delivered over the last month. In mid April, on returning from the Kumbh Mela we will look at identifying more areas that need assistance and getting water there as quickly as possible. If anyone can help financially so that we can increase our number of deliveries it would be most welcome.

Yours

Swami Jasraj Puri

Result of poor water supply

These cows were lying next to the local waterhole, and showing the symptoms of poor water quality. Due to the extremely high salt and flouride levels in the water the animals tend to sit and excrete a very thin diahhrea continuously all day after drinking.

The next day our water supply started in this village.

Inspection

Slightly famous for being a cleanliness freak, Sadwi Yogmayanand Ji didn't think that the cleanliness of this water trough was up to scratch for our water to go inside and pretty much literally took the villagers "to the cleaners" The village is Dhanani, district Nagaur.

Village action

These photos were taken in early November on a trip to the places in Nagaur District, about 20km from Khatu Ashram, where we are delivering water. On this day I visited the villages of Durgastau, Chapra,Rotoo, Dhanani and Setudau. The area where these villages are located has severe problems with the groundwater. It is so salty that animals that drink it immediately get sick. The tankers are putting in various places in and around the mentioned villages in the pre constructed watering troughs.

The first photo is one of the tractor tankers at the point of filling in the village of Jayal. The water is coming from a government water supply and the local district magistrate is to the left in the photo












In the third photo it is hard to see but there is a large herd of wild deer, known as black buck, which are also getting their water supply through our tankers.

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.