A drop harvested is a crop harvested
What has been the primary focus/project this term?
In 2023, our primary focus has been implementing remote systems in the village. In collaboration with our main contacts, we have built a total of 8 remote systems. In addition, the Rainwater project group has been applying to a variety of grants and communicating with corporations for future funding. Further, we are conducting surveys to gauge our rainwater system recipients’ satisfaction and to understand other pressing issues in the villagers for future projects.
TGIF Grant
Obtained the grant in Spring 2021.
Organized a rainwater harvesting system design-a-thon and sustainable development speaker panel in Fall 2021 to create a sustainable impact directly on the UC Berkeley community.
Remote Construction
Redesigned our rainwater harvesting system based on design-a-thon competition results.
Worked thoroughly with our village contacts and builders to carefully choose recipients based on needs for a remote system.
A drop harvested is a crop harvested
past projects
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In Summer 2018, Rainwater Harvesting installed our first harvesting system on Sharvan Kumar’s home.
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In Summer 2019, we built harvesting systems on six more homes in Ward 5 and conducted research on prospective recipients of harvesting systems to get a better understanding of their needs and water difficulties. Rainwater’s team also had meetings with NGOs for partnerships.
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In Summer 2022, we built 10 harvesting systems and conducted research on past and potential system recipients.
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In Summer 2023, we assisted with 4 remote systems with our main builder, Naresh Ji.
future projects
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Community board: we hope to organize a system of communication between our village contacts (notably Sharvanji, Harkiratji, Nasirji, and tractor owners) so that the villagers will be able to handle the construction of rainwater harvesting systems on their own. The role of our project group would be to subsidize the costs of the harvesting systems.
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Sustainable funding: We believe acquiring funding is crucial for the project to run almost independently and sustainably (along with the Community Board). Applying to grants and CSR funding have also been part of our immediate goals.
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We hope to collaborate with RISHI’s Education project group to implement rainwater harvesting systems in schools. We are also looking to construct projects that look at women in agriculture through RISHI’s Women’s Empowerment group.
