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PAN IIT Annual Conference

A related initiative

20 watershed projects to be completed before the NE Monsoon in Oct 2008

Why pure drinking water is important in our villages ?

Water is the 'life blood' and without water, our villages will disappear. And they will be at your doorstep in the cities.

We all know that Mahatma Gandhiji resorted to fasting to force the British to leave India. Did you know that during all those fasts, Gandhiji did not eat food but drank water many times a day.

Without water for 4 days, the human kidney will perish. Did you know that?

If a village does not have access to drinking water, often women will walk 2 to 3 hours to bring 2 pots of water on their head. When they are gone looking for water, their family suffers, the children are not taken care of. When a village has no water, the villagers leave that village. If you have a school in that village, it will be empty, with no students.

In many parts of India, the ground water supply is getting depleted due to excessive use of bore wells. Bore wells are being installed at deeper and deeper depths. Should we not collect the rain water and replenish these drinking water tanks and the bore wells.

Contamination of drinking water with Iron is common everywhere. In many places, fluoride is present. In some limited regions of India (Bengal and Assam), naturally occurring poisonous arsenic is found at depths of 200 feet below the ground.

What can you do?

As an IIT alumni, you can participate in the 20 watershed initiative being undertaken, in parallel with the upcoming PanIIT2008 Annual International Conference in IITM Chennai on Dec 19-21, 2008. (www.paniit2008.org )

What is this initiative?

We have selected 20 sites spread over the 3 southern states – Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (around the conference venue site in Chennai). A well known Madurai based NGO – DHAN Foundation has agreed to undertake the physical projects using their local staff and complete the projects before the onset of the next NE monsoon in October 2008.

Each project will cost around Rs 3 lakhs.

Of this the first 1/3 and the most important 1/3 will be invested by the village community getting the benefit. The other 2/3 will be funded through donations from the IIT community.

You can learn more about these drinking water pond projects at www.dhan.org/ooranis/index.php

How can I participate in this initiative?

You can participate in one of many ways:

• Pledge / donate Rs 1 lakh for a site of your choice.
• Pledge / donate using a group of IIT alumni known to you
• Offer your time to visit the project site at least 2 times when the project is taking place and provide site reports.
• Learn more about such projects and inspire future projects

Where are the selected District / Village sites.

List of Districts and Villages

These villages have been carefully chosen by DHAN based on their need and ability to invest 1/3 of the project funding.