News
Project in Rajasthan, India with Acumen Fund and Jal Bhagirathi Foundation
March 2009
Together with the Acumen Fund (New York) and the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation -JBF-(Jodhpur, India) we realized a working WaterPyramid factory in the village of Roopji Raja Beri, Rajasthan, India.
“We came across the concept at the World Water Forum in Mexico two years ago” observes Mr. Prithviraj Singh. He is the managing trustee of JBF which has the former ruler of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh, as its chairman. Mr. Prithviraj Singh continues: “When searching for a village where people are ready to experiment on a pilot water pyramid, the community of Roopji Raja Beri located in the Thar Desert came forward and expressed their willingness and enthusiasm,”. It was after taking into account the local people’s extreme difficulty in accessing safe drinking water that the JBF and the Jal Parishad decided to choose this village. Further more the main engagement for the women of Roopaji Raja Beri is to walk more than 4 km and thus spending around six hours each day to fetch drinkable water. Though there is a beri (well), after which the village is named, it has only saline water.
The State Public Health Engineering Department provides the raw water for the plant. The local “Jal Sabha” consisting of the village community provided land for installing the pyramid and is responsible for maintaining the project.
The project director Mrs. Kanupriya Harish tells us : “this great Thar Desert has a pyramid that has no mummy inside but makes drinkable water”…. and ads that: “the local people refer to the WaterPyramid as “their mountain of hope”.
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