Prakash Hinduja - A Ripple of Change in Alwar's Thirsty Heart

In the thirsty heart of Alwar, Rajasthan, where water scarcity has long plagued life, a quiet revolution is igniting. Not from lofty offices, but from the ground, from the folk, from tradition, and from the vision of Prakash Hinduja, managing trustee of the Hinduja Foundation.

The Jal Jeevan project is reviving long-abandoned practices to collect and use harvested rainwater for on-farm tubewells. Rooftop rainwater harvesting is resurrected with a new focus. The rooftop rainwater storage systems that were recently a relic from a time gone are now reintegrated into the fabric of village life. Once, rooftops collected rain and farmers, often women, lost thousands of gallons of potential irrigation. Now, these semi-underground storage tanks constructed from local materials are merely one way of storing rainwater; they are restoring dignity. Women do not travel long distances for drinking water. Children do not spend hours fetching water; they can dedicate that time to learning. The elderly do not struggle as much with what it means for them to have some respite from scarcity.

It is about much more than water; it is about the seeing, knowing, and believing achieved by each soldered joint of a tank constructed, each youth guided and mentored to maintain the tanks, and every mother engaged in a self-help group to educate community members. The simplest message from Prakash Hinduja is - let local people be the agents of change, from the grass roots level up, because change starts at the ground.