Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

projects. Shri A.B. Patil, scientific officer in BARC,
encouraged his brother, Shri Muralidhar B. Patil, to
implement rain water harvesting to irrigate his
cotton fields. As a teacher I encouraged a group of
students to write a report on rainwater harvesting.
Public Awareness measures adopted by ASA
Through SEWA
Agnel Seva Ashram, an interfaith association
committed to social and environmental harmony
organized a national seminar on “Responsible
Citizenship for National Regeneration” in
collaboration with the Dharma Bharathi National
Foundation. As an action oriented follow-up to this
seminar, SEWA was established at Vashi. Saving
electricity and Water is one way of exhibiting
responsible citizenship.
SEWA organized a week-long save water
campaign with thoughts for the day that provoked
reflection on the judicious use of the vital resource.
In addition several competitions, which attracted not
only students but also staff, were organized in the
campus at Vashi.
A Jingle composed and performed by a
committed student was sung on several days of the
week.
A Poster Competition was held.
A Caption Competition in which pictures
were displayed and participants were asked to give
stimulating captions was held.
A Problem-Solving Competition was also
held. Here real-life water related problems were
given to participants for viable concrete solutions.
This week long onslaught of messages and activities
had a significant impact on staff and students. There
was a noticeable difference in staff-student approach
to these valuable resources. We hope this translated
into significant savings in the bills and a plan to
actually monitor and measure these savings is
underway.
SEWA also organized a seminar on rain water
harvesting with Mr. Walawalkar from Enviro-Vigil,
giving us very valuable inputs. ASA encourages
participation in seminars organized by others.
A rainwater harvesting project has been
proposed and planned for the Technical Education
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Complex at Vashi. We hope this will be the model
for other educational institutions in and around
Vashi as also for other ASA centers in the country.
Conclusions
Mihir Shah of the Samaj Pragati (M.P) said,
“To be the vehicles of a fundamental social
transformation, development programs must be
conceptualized as part of a process of community
Empowerment…. The aim must be to gradually
move towards what has been recently described as
the post-bureaucratic or interactive mode of
implementation in which everyone takes
responsibility for the whole” 6 . But for everyone to
take responsibility all must know what they are
taking responsibility for, why they are taking
responsibility and how they can fulfill their
responsibility. In other words, a high degree of
conscientization is required. As our former President
K.R. Narayanan said, “ For a people’s movement
for good water management we will need a massive
program to promote water literacy” 7 . Rain Water
Harvesting must become a nation-wide movement
through a multi-pronged public awareness campaign
using different systems and methods of reaching the
public.
List of References
• www.google.com.cpreec.org/04-pamphlets
• Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain and Indira
Khurana Making Water Everybody’s Business;
Practice and Policy of Rainwater Harvesting.
• Making Water Everybody’s Business;
Practice and Policy of Rainwater Harvesting.
• Making Water Everybody’s Business;
Practice and Policy of Rainwater Harvesting.
Pg.5
• Anil Agarwal, “Water Harvesting in a new
age” Making Water Everybody’s Business; Pg.2
• Mihir Shah, “Participatory watershed
Development: An Institutional Framework”
Making Water Everybody’s Business; Pg.219
• Hon. President K R Narayanan in his inaugural
speech at C.S.E.’s National Conference on the
potential of water Harvesting(1998)