MILPITAS, CA: Overseas Volunteers for a Better India (OVBI), a registered non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, held its first annual fundraiser gala for India Water Project at the India Community Center (ICC) on May 19.
The evening’s program kicked off with a warm reception, with sumptuous appetizers and beverages and was later punctuated with beautiful dance performances, dinner and a live band.
The hostess for the program was OVBI volunteer Lochan, an environmental engineer. She introduced the key speakers for the evening, starting with B V Jagadeesh, Co-Chair of OVBI’s India Water Project.
B V Jagadeesh was an engaging speaker, starting with the story of his childhood in a small village in southern India. At that time, one could strike water underground at 40 feet. These days, in many parts of India, one has to dig over 1000 feet.
Illustrating how a similar issue was tackled in the US, he narrated the story of nearby San Jose in the 1920s. People had to dig up to 1000 feet and there was the belief that “God is not giving us water.”
“It so happened that the city of San Jose actually sank by 2 inches.That’s when the alarms went off”, Mr. Jagadeesh said. “The city, state, everybody had to take corrective steps. That’s when they formed the San Jose Water Company and they raised money through bonds and various kinds of things.”
He praised Mohan Trikha, Chair of the OVBI India Water Project and Nagaraju Rao, another senior member, who “despite their ages”, visited the drought-ridden area of Latur, Maharashtra multiple times.
B V Jagadeesh admiringly spoke of Datta Patil, one of the key drivers of the project. Datta hails from Latur district that was first hit with an earthquake and then severe drought. He said that Datta, who works for Yahoo, could have just sent money home. “But that’s not what he did. He took collective steps and rallied up the volunteers, and we all got inspired and got involved”, Jagadeesh said.
During the panel discussion, key members shared their personal stories.Despite not being from Maharashtra or South India, Mohan Trikha got involved. “I am an Indian first”, he said. On a trip to India in 2016, he observed that the Railways were using wagons formerly used to transport oil to ferry water to Latur.
In 2016, in Latur city near Datta’s hometown, the authorities were transporting drinking water from fifty miles away for four months.While on a regular pilgrimage trip to Pandharpur, Datta and his parents spent hours looking for drinking water to have breakfast. The lack of green cover and acute water shortage made him realize something was seriously amiss.
Satej Chaudhary, President, OVBI, spoke about how geo-scientific surveys had influenced him. He mentioned plans to develop an Institute of Water Management that would serve not only India, but also other South-East Asian countries.
The panelists explained how water shortage in India was mainly due to mismanagement of resources. Deforestation and the resulting accumulation of silt in the canals led to depletion of ground water.
Datta Patil mentioned the striking contrast between Milpitas, California, which received annual rainfall of over 400 mm during the recent drought period and his hometown of Latur that received more than double the amount of rainfall, yet faced acute water shortage.The taps never ran dry in California.
OVBI’s projects involve different steps such as de-silting the canals, rainwater collection and planting vegetation.
“According to a NASA report, India’s global position for groundwater depletion is alarming! The World Resources Institute reports that 54% of India faces extremely high water-stress. By 2030, India will be able to meet only 50% of its water needs,” said BV Jagadeesh.
He cited some grim statistics:
• 330 million people in 250,000 villages are short of water
• 85% of India’s water is utilized for agriculture, making farmers the worst affected segment with hundreds of suicides and deep distress
“The critical nature of the problem touched many hearts this evening”, said John Varela, Director, Santa Clara Valley Water District, who in his address said that he was almost embarrassed to say that they have water problems in the county for which they have millions of dollars’ budget. He extended his full support in terms of exchange of expertise in resolving problems in India.
The attendees – numbering over 400 – were inspired to generously contribute towards the cause and helped OVBI achieve their goal of $250K for 2018.
Mohan Trikha thanked all the supporters for helping them achieve their initial target of $150K before the event itself and then the revised target of $250K.
He explained that the funds would provide sufficient resources to help 50 additional villages in multiple states achieve water sufficiency.
Mr. Trikha also expressed his sincere gratitude to community leaders such as Dr. Romesh Japra of FIA and Mr. Anil Godhwani of ICC, and members of TiE for their support, without which this could not have been achieved.
In addition to all the donations and matching contributions from different companies, CEO of Kespry, George Mathews donated an industrial grade drone worth tens of thousands of dollars to facilitate rapid surveys of hundreds of acres of land.
OVBI currently partners with Art of Living India for ground implementation for some of its projects.
Short-term vision: Bring water sufficiency to 500 villages in the most drought prone areas of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu and other states, benefitting 1 million people by 2022.
Work is underway in 25 villages, leveraging existing government schemes, corporate social responsibility grants and village self-help in addition to individual contributions.
California State Assemblymember Ash Kalra and City of Fremont Councilmember Raj Salwan were present at the event to show their support for the cause. Assemblymember Ash Kalra awarded OVBI and Art of Living, India, each with a Certificate of Recognition.
A state delegation may visit India soon to work with Government of India and OVBI Water Project for the quest of water sufficiency in India.
Lakshmi Iyer
India Post News Service
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
