Sustainable Innovations (www.si-usa.org), USA, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani were awarded a grant of Rs 60, 00,000 by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, to demonstrate Aakash Ganga’s social enterprise model along with its holistic sustainability and innovations. AG is a domestic rainwater harvesting system that alleviates the perennial scarcity of drinking water in the rural villages. Aakash Ganga’s social enterprise model couples “social business” of Noble Laureate Muhammad Yunus and cultural sustainability of Gandhi. It evolved over several years through incubation and pilot in six villages which are in close proximity to BITS Pilani campus.

Under the DST grant, BITS has set up an innovation hub led by Prof. Rajiv Gupta, Dean of Engineering Services Division. The other members are: Prof. Yashvardhan Sharma, Prof. Raaj Ramsankaran, Sourabh Bhati, Saurabh Bulchandani, Sumit Kumar, & Ayush Agrawal.  Prof. Yashvardhan Sharma is designing IT network to monitor water quality and utilization; Prof. Raaj Ramsankaran is automating Aakash Ganga network design; Saurabh Bhati is developing indigenous drip irrigation system; Sumit is employing Google Earth imaginatively; Saurabh Bulchandani –is inventing data visualization system; and Ayush is creating a numbering system.

For more information about the individuals and for the complete article click here.

To read the complete article published in MARWAR India, click here.

Aqsa from the BITSAA Communications team caught up with Dr.B.P Agrawal at Pilani. Check out the video interview to see what this luminary has to share with us!

We are in Sardarpura, a sleepy village 150 KM southwest of New Delhi, India. Women have gathered at village square. They are tapping empty matka, earthen water pot, to produce melodious beats. One is humming the lament of bride, “Dhola thare desh men, moti marvan aant. Daroo milti mokali, paani ki koni chhant.”

Oh, Beloved!
In your land
Not a drop of water
Brides have to fetch water from miles
It is hard to survive but for your love
Thus laments a bride.

The melody is drowned by sudden commotion. The children start running on dusty streets yelling “Pani Aagayaa. Paani Aagayaa” (Water has come! Water has come!). Women wrapped in vibrant colors rush with their matkas, large clay pots, resting on their waists – only to join the queue of matkas that arrived before them. The water tanker had just arrived. It only took two weeks.

I set up my film gear to begin shooting. Immediately, I am flocked by women with their pleas for water. I ask my father, Dr. BP Agrawal, to translate my questions into Marwari – the regional dialect, “How scarce is water here?” I ask. A voice speaks from the crowd “Why ask? Just count the number of bachelors.” I am puzzled. What is the relationship between water scarcity and the number of bachelors? Another voice unravels the mystery. “No father or brother wants to marry off his daughter or sister in this village as she would then have to spend all day fetching water for her new family.” I’m rendered speechless.

Figure 1: Women pulling water from the well by tying rope to their waist.

From Sardarpura, we drive two hours to Lasedi. Images of the US and the villages flash back and forth. I am forced to reflect on the daily water consumption of 500+ liters per person in the US compared to the 10 – 15 liters per person in Sardarpura. I reach Lasedi shrouded in a pensive mood — hoping for someone to lift its pall. Raju Bhardwaj, our escort, takes us to a dug well, 200 – 300 feet deep. It is mid-day. Temperature hovers around 100⁰ F.

The unforgiving sun beats down on the village women, who, with rope tied to the lead woman’s waist (not captured by the camera), are drawing water. Vicki Williams, a University of Virginia student, is snapping photos of meandering camels.

Humor and Hardiness! Picture of Shanti.

Amazed with their hardiness, I approached Shanti, who had come to fetch water for her family, with “Mai (respectful variation of Ma), how old are you?” Her answer lifts the pall — I crack up: “Just count the wrinkles.”

Let’s rewind. In 2003, Aakash Ganga (River from Sky) was conceived by my father, Dr. BP Agrawal, as a self-sustainable domestic rainwater harvesting scheme. He aimed to alleviate the perennial shortage of safe drinking water in the “dark zone” villages of Rajasthan (“Dark Zone” is a Government of India descriptor for over-exploited water region). Within months, the Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA), whose members are expatriates of Rajasthan origin, provided seed funding for Aakash Ganga’s incubation.

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), premier engineering institute of Rajasthan and my father’s alma mater, came forward to provide technical expertise. Three years later, Aakash Ganga won the World Bank’s 2006 Development Marketplace grant of $200,000 in a global competition for innovation in the water and sanitation sector.

The World Bank cited Aakash Ganga for its holistic sustainability – economic, cultural, social, technological, ecological, and organizational. Over the last 5 years, Aakash Ganga has been piloted in 6 villages: Pilani, Raila, Indrasar, Kakreu Kalan, Lasedi, and Harinagar. These pilots debunked the myth that people would not pay for water; paved way for sustainable consumption and production of water; and benefitted from local culture, for example, familial bonds, and artisans.

Aakash Ganga has been perfected as a two-tier social enterprise (below). The first tier, village-level enterprise, manages Aakash Ganga in one or a cluster of villages. The second-tier ensures flow of capital, technology, and management to the village-level enterprises.

Recently, Dr. Agrawal won the support and commitment of The Government of Rajasthan to help implement Aakash Ganga in 50 villages as a public-private-community partnership or social enterprise. Upon completion, Aakash Ganga will provide drinking water to 125,000 people for generations in perpetuity.

How does it work?

Aakash Ganga (AG) harvests domestic rainwater in the “dark zone” of Rajasthan. AG channel rooftop rainwater from every house, through gutters and pipes, to a network of multi-tier underground reservoirs as shown in Figure 2: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network. AG has the capacity to collect and store rainwater sufficient to last for an entire year with average rainfall (up to 100,000 Ft³). AG is implemented as a social enterprise or public-private-community partnership (PPCP) to acquire rights from home owners to harvest their rooftop rainwater for a fee or subsidy. The harvested rainwater is supplied to the village as per a socially equitable distribution policy. Part of the water is used for revenue generation and cost recovery.

Figure 3: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Network

How have rural citizens embraced Aakash Ganga?

During my visit to Lasedi, people invited me to see their own innovations. One entrepreneurial homeowner had devised a way to hide the rainwater-channeling pipes by building an awning. Another individual built a platform around the in-home reservoir to serve as a family gathering quadrangle. Yet another devised a method to monitor the water utilization. Indeed people have embraced Aakash Ganga as their own project.

It is this ownership and sense of unity that ensures the self-sustainability of Aakash Ganga.

It is midday. The Sun is blindingly bright. Temperature is hovering over 100^o F. A little girl in blue skirt is running away from the school, leaving her footprints in the sand. Is she skipping the classes? Did she leave her homework at home? Or, is she tending someone sick?

Unable to resist my nosiness, I enter the school grounds – a row of classrooms and nothing else. Not even a water fountain. I hurry up to the Headmaster’s room, which is spartanly furnished. The desk with its scratches resembles an elderly face full of wrinkles. Therefore, deserves respect. (Age commands respect. Pretend to be bit older than your age if you yearn to be heard!) The headmaster, with unabashed surprise, greets me with inquisitive eyes. I forget to introduced myself and blurt out “why was that girl running away from the school?”

Just to get a drink of water, responded the Headmaster. “What? Say, it one more time!” Please have a seat, the Headmaster nudged me softly. I plunk myself in the chair. The Headmaster, Mr. Kamruddin, is a soft spoken man in his early forties. In calming voice he explains: The school does not have sweet water. The girl has gone home to get drink of water. She is a good student and will be back in a few minutes.

That is a yesterday’s tale to be romanticized. It is different story now.

A beaming Mr. Kamruddin shared his joy. Now, Aakash Ganga harvests the school rooftop rainwater and stores in an underground reservoir. “The children don’t have to skip their classes and rush home for a drink of water.”

Girls now have access to water at the school.

Outside the school, I met with Mr. Niranjan Singh, who spearheaded Aakash Ganga’s implementation, introduced me to Sumitra Devi. She let me know that this summer her children did not suffer from diarrhea because Aakash Ganga provided clean sweet water.

The livestock thriving in the village post implementation of Aakash Ganga.

On my way back, I stopped in Raila. There I met with Maya, a 70-year old grandmother, who was one of the first to champion the cause of Aakash Ganga. She whispered her secret “My cow’s milk has doubled (because of Aakash Ganga).”