Imagine a world without water. There will be droughts, scorching temperatures, and severe climate crises. This apocalyptic scenario may turn into reality if we don’t address the existing issues of water crisis and conservation. In India, the numbers are already are quite scary. According to the UNICEF, two-thirds of India’s 718 districts are affected by “extreme water depletion” and the rapid rate of groundwater depletion is a major cause for concern.
As the rainfall pattern in India is rapidly changing, with flash floods and sudden downpours, conserving the water surplus is becoming a herculean challenge. That’s because the water mostly flows away and the water table is unable to be recharged. Farmers depend on the water surplus for their livelihood and the absence of it makes matters worse for them. If farmers are unable to utilise water for agriculture, not only would they be deprived of basic livelihood, but we as consumers would also bear the brunt as we depend on them for our survival.
This is where Maithili Appalwar, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, stepped in with her for-profit social enterprise, Avana to help farmers with a water conservation programme. Since its inception in 2017, Avana claims to have built over 20,000 artificial ponds across various states, saving 3.5 billion litres of water on more than 6000 farms.
Avana’s water conservation solution, Jalasanchay, gives farmers access to artificial ponds to solve their needs. Shedding light on how Jalasanchay works, Maithili says that one needs to “dig up a large pit in the ground and cover it with geomembrane that avoids the percolation, so you can hold this drain water and harvest that. You can just conserve it throughout the season and you can use it all around the year.”
In an exclusive conversation, Soulveda speaks to Maithili about her work with Avana, what steps can be taken to address the water crisis issue in India, and what role can the youth and citizens play in addressing it.
Tell us how you started Avana and what was the inspiration behind it?
My family is from Yavatmal, a district in north-eastern Maharashtra, which has one of the highest suicide rates among farmers in the country. Originally, the idea behind Avana—founded in 2017— was to understand how mental health and wellbeing can be promoted among farmers to reduce suicide rates. I thought about what could be done to improve their incomes. I looked into the challenges they faced and found the lack of consistent water was their biggest hurdle. The government infrastructure is not properly built and not all the rivers and canals are connected to the farms. The way the water is given to farmers is quite erratic, and because of that, poverty is prevalent. This was the problem I was attempting to solve by creating a consistent source of water on the farms.
What challenges did you face as a young entrepreneur and how did you overcome those?
In the rural sector, a lot of times, people think that since I have come from the city, I will just fulfil my passion and go away. That was the biggest challenge. As a young person, that too a woman in the rural sector, it is difficult to be taken seriously. I experienced a lot of sexist behaviour. For example, people would tell me ‘bring your father’ or one time, when I wore a dress, I was asked, ‘where is your husband?’ It was overwhelming. I was 19 when we started and I didn’t have the maturity to deal with it. But I took most of the challenges in my stride.
One thing that helped me overcome the challenges was to be consistent with the communities we were visiting. If you are going to one place five-six times, the people there can see that the person is genuine.
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