Datta Patil, a US-based engineer, rehabilitated his drought-stricken hometown. Halgara village in Maharashtra currently has a water storage capacity of more than 200 billion litres.
Do you recall the award-winning film Swades? A scene from the film has played out in Halgara, a small hamlet in Maharashtra’s Latur district.
Datta Patil, an engineer living in the United States, grew raised in Halgara. He attended the village’s government school through the 10th grade. He went on to further his education outside of the town and finally landed a position with one of the top multinational corporations in the United States.
Datta never lost his roots, even after relocating to the United States. Once a year, he travelled to India to see his family and hometown. It was on one of these visits to the village that he realised it was no longer the place he had grown up in.
At the time, the community was suffering severe water scarcity and had to rely on trains carrying water tankers for drinking water.
Datta returned to the United States and began looking for answers to the problem. He reasoned that it was the village’s abnormally low groundwater level, which was then at 800 feet, that was causing water shortages.
His next plan of action was to assist the people in collecting rainwater to replenish the groundwater table. He spent over Rs 3 lakh of his own money to begin watershed efforts in the community.
As part of his efforts, a 20-kilometer canal was desilted, as well as 20 recharge wells and 26 check dams. Datta has spent over Rs 22 lakh on this endeavour as his own contribution to date. In addition, he persuaded his company, Yahoo USA, to sponsor this campaign to revitalise the community.
As a result, Halgara was turned into a model hamlet with a water storage capacity of more than 200 crore litres.
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