Mumbai: This World Water Day, Astral Foundation- the CSR wing of the Astral Group completed the social initiative to lay a 2.7 km water pipeline to make water accessible in Hiwali, a remote village in Maharashtra prone to acute drought, every summer. On 19 February 2021, Astral Foundation along with the local tribal villagers, Social Networking Forum, and a local NGO called Gadwat had come together to address the dire situation of water scarcity in this village, deprived of clean water supply since Independence. The initiative has impacted 300+ villagers and 1500+ livestock. The residents of Hiwali do not have to trek for water anymore and the students have more time to polish their ingenious talents.
Home to a tribal population, this village land runs dry during the summer months and people have to trek miles across difficult terrains to fetch potable water daily. Hidden from the world outside, this village has extremely talented students, some of whom know tables till 600 and a few who can solve the Rubik’s cube in seconds. These special kids too, have to give up a part of their childhood to get water as their day-to-day routine. The task to make clean water accessible to the outlying village of Hiwali was an engineering challenge that the Astral Foundation triumphed over. They installed two water storage tanks and built a 50 ft deep well, along with the pipeline to permanently make water accessible to the villagers. The global water crisis can only be annulled when the human right to access clean water is realized across the globe. More than 2 billion people across the world still have no access to clean water. Every day, nearly 1,000 children under age 5 die from diarrhea attributed to poor water and sanitation. World over, women and children spend an estimated 200 million hours hauling water, every day.
Keshav Gavit, Z P Primary Digital School Hiwali, said, “They (the students) focused all their energy and thought towards fetching water when the school ends. It was the most crucial event in their day. No one in the village realized that they were losing a major chunk of their childhood. The Hiwali Pipeline project has changed the way of life here for good. There are many happier faces and brighter minds in the class now, with a motive to dream about something more than just fetching water for survival.”
Kairav Engineer, VP Business Development, Astral Pipes, said, “Astral Foundation is our CSR initiative functioning towards sustainable development. Our focus is to address social and environmental challenges and take up projects in the fields of Health, Environment, Education, Disaster Management, etc. This village of Hiwali has very talented kids and the hardships for water are unthinkable. We plan to work further in the same direction so as to give back to our society and environment.”