A Unique Contribution for a Noble Cause - Water for Adivasi Villages Water is the lifeline for human life.

While most people in the urban areas take clean and pure drinking water for granted, there are many villages in the country, where availability of drinking water is a luxury. The cluster of villages at the foothills of Matheran is one such place. These villages have abundant rainfall but due to poor conservation techniques face severe shortage of water post monsoon and the womenfolk have to trek almost 3-4 km for fetching drinking water daily. The Sri Sathya Sai Trust Maharashtra is a service oriented spiritual organization, inspired by the monumental humanitarian work of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, undertakes many public service projects across the state of Maharashtra. The water project for Adivasi villages located at the foothills of Matheran is one such project, which gives an excellent example of how various organizations can come together and achieve great things for greater good and upliftment of the poor & the needy. This project has been fully funded to the tune of Rs. 18 Lakhs by the HDFC Bank Ltd. which is a leading private sector bank in India providing a whole range of banking solutions covering both commercial and investment banking on the wholesale side and transactional / branch banking on the retail side. It is the banks wholehearted support, which has aided the quick and successful implementation of the project. This project is one amongst the myriad social responsibility missions taken on by HDFC bank to serve humanity. The fundamental teaching of Sri Sathya Sai Baba Love All Serve All & Help Ever Hurt Never and the HDFC Banks caption We Understand Your World has brought

the synergy for this project to manifest serving the poor Adivasi villagers. This project will cater to 7 villages and will provide water to more than1200 villagers. A Bund is built which will conserve the water and will supplement the well, which acts as the permanent source of water throughout the year. A submersible water pump of 10HP is installed which will pump the water to the height of 120 meters on the hillock. HDPE pipeline measuring approximately 5Kms is laid which will carry the water to the Water Storage tank, which has the capacity to store 90,000 liters, is built on the hillock. There are 14 water distribution outlets built which will provide cool pure water to the villagers at their doorstep. The project is at the final stages of its completion and is scheduled for the inauguration on the auspicious occasion of Ramnavmi which falls on 18 th April 2005.