Meet Marathwada's water man: 70-year-old spends life's savings to bring water to parched village
ByKRISHNA KUMAR
A 70-year-old man from the arid Marathwada region has accomplished a feat the state government could not imagine - provide water to 900 people in his village Shrungarwadi.
At a time when the rest of Marathwada is facing severe water crisis leading to exodus from villages, Shrungarwadi residents are getting potable water at their doorstep, free of cost.
This miracle has been made possible because of the extraordinary zeal of a humble villager - Tukaram Kolekar.
Good Samaritan: Tukaram Kolekar enjoys the sound of water bubbling into a hosepipe from one of the wells he dug
Two years ago, when rains eluded Shrungarwadi once again, forcing the villagers to trek more than 2km to draw water from a well, Tukaram decided to find a permanent solution to the problem.
He had a well which had gone dry. Tukaram dug up a borewell close to the well and started pumping water into it. His initiative provided some relief to the villagers, but they still had to trudge some distance to get water from the well. So Tukaram bought plastic pipes and laid them from the well to the village. He also bought big tanks, placed them in the village and began storing water in them.
Today, the entire village collects water from the tanks. To achieve this task, Tukaram invested his life savings and the income of his family members in digging the borewells and buying hosepipes and tanks.
"I did it because God told me to," said the old man.
Tukaram's initiative has brought a smile to every face in the village of Shringarwadi
Tukaram's family is not rich by any stretch of imagination. His three sons and their wives are daily wage labourers who crush sugarcane for a living. In all, Tukaram spent Rs 3.5 lakh to lay the pipes and dig the borewells.
While his sons did not object to the expenditure, his daughters-in-law did rake up the issue.
"The Mathara (old man) doesn't listen to anyone. Earlier, we used to complain about spending all our hard-earned money on this but when he did not pay any heed, we stopped discussing the matter. Now, we laugh about it and say the Mathara is all set to spend our life's savings on this project," said Sindhubai, Tukaram's daughter-in-law.
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After the borewells had been dug, other problems such as intermittent power supply cropped up. Tukaram decided to sleep near the borewell so that whenever power supply was restored, he could switch on the borewell.�
Soon he began digging more borewells. Finally, he found water in the upper reaches of the village, almost a kilometre from his home.�
Tukaram's family is now actively engaged in the project.�
"Even if we peel off our skin and stitch a pair of slippers for Tukaram, it we won't be enough to repay what this man and his family have done for us," said Jotibai Kolekar, a villager.
Read more:�http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2295415/Meet-Marathwadas-water-man-70-year-old-spends-lifes-savings-bring-water-parched-village.html#ixzz2PGehFg4v�
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