The Water Crisis and How ConnectFor is helping!

Water crisis brings with them depletion of groundwater and drought. Maharashtra has been in a serious state of a drought for the last 15 years, but media coverage for this drought only gained momentum in 2015, after a gradual rise in farmer suicides. Maharashtra’s water crisis has spanned across the region, and ConnectFor is taking great measures through volunteering to tackle this crisis in numerous ways.

Drought is a global issue due to its lack of a universal definition and since it is arguably the biggest single threat from climate change. As of now, international agencies refer to national governments before declaring a drought, because they say it is partly subjective and highly political. To further complicate matters, current drought forecast mechanisms, which require good forecast data and local knowledge, are unreliable and are least likely to be acted on to prevent disaster in the countries that are most at risk. For instance, one of our partner NGOs, Tahaan, aims to make India drought resistant. Tahaan has impacted 1 lakh people, supplied 29 lakh gallons of water, planted 7000 trees, and adopted 17 villages across Maharashtra in pursuit of drought relief.

Another global issue is the depletion of groundwater resources. India is the 3rd largest groundwater exporter in the world, but 21 cities in the country are expected to run out of groundwater by 2021. A sustainable solution to restoring the level of groundwater is planting trees. ConnectFor has been instrumental in planting over 1000 saplings across 3 cities in India while engaging more than 250 volunteers for the same. This weekend, ConnectFor is coming to Pune with its 4th edition of ‘VicTree,’ where we aim to plant 300 saplings.

ConnectFor has a special ‘Environment’ cause vertical that attempts to bridge the gap caused due to the water crisis within Maharashtra, along with other environmental issues in our operating cities of Pune and Bengaluru. We are currently partnered with NGOs such as Jeevitnadhi Living River Foundation, Paani, Tahaan, and Anarde in Maharashtra. You too, can volunteer with these NGOs and make a difference in the future of our planet, no matter how big or small!