- SHIRDI'S WATER WOES: WATER PURIFICATION MACHINES DONATED -
16th April`2011
During this year, approx 2 crore 70 lakh devotees have visited Shirdi, signaling a huge demand for pure Drinking Water.
And this demand is bound to only grow further as about 50,000 people on an average visit the temple on week days & 1.5 lakh on weekends.
While, on special occasions, this figure goes upto 3 lakhs. At present, packaged Drinking Water worth approx Rs.1 lakh is sold every day in Shirdi.
So, to provide pure drinking water free of cost to all devotees coming to Shirdi for Baba's Darshan,
an Andhra Pradesh based NGO, Raju Vegesna Foundation has recently, at a cost of approx Rs.30 lakhs,
installed 22 Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Purification Machines in the premises of the Sai Baba Temple @ Shirdi.
About 30,000 devotees are quenching their thirst with this free pure drinking water every day.
Also, as the number of devotees visiting Shirdi has doubled in the last 5 years,
Shirdi & its nearby villages have developed very rapidly thus the problem of continuous water supply to Shirdi has become very crucial.
For which, in early 2009, Raju Vegesna Foundation had approached the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust with a proposal
to install a Water Purification plant in Shirdi so that the devotees visiting Shirdi will no longer have to buy bottled drinking Water.
The Shirdi Sai Trust had given its approval for this proposal for which the Raju Vegesna Foundation also donated a Water Purification plant.
In Today's date, the work on this Water Purification plant is almost done and is designed to cater to the large numbers of devotees
visiting Shirdi on any given day together with the Sai Prasadalaya, Sai Baba Hospital, the Temple premises, Dharamshala,
Common Toilet Complexes, Staff housing colonies and also two villages namely Kankuri & Pimpalgaon to which the Shirdi Sai Sansthan's
own independent water supply and distribution system supplies Water.
But the crucial issue of the continuous Water supply to this Water Purification Plant yet remains.
The Shirdi Sai Sansthan Trust has not yet decided,
whether the Water for this Plant should be sourced from the Nilwande Dam or the Dharna Dam.
There are no rivers flowing in Shirdi nor any significant Water bodies such as Lakes & Ponds present, in and around Shirdi.
Two Streams namely Lendi and Sira which used to flow near Sai Baba's Samadhi Temple have now dried up.
So, the main source of Surface Water supply to Shirdi is from the Right Bank Canal of the Godavari river.
But, this canal is very dangerous & uncertain as it bursts every year and can create a havoc
if it burst in some remote area, as then it would take a lot of time to get it repaired.
It is difficult to say as to when these canals on the Godavari river will be permanently repaired.
Water for the domestic / irrigation needs of Shirdi town is met substantially by its ground water supply,
but as for the needs of surface Water, it has not yet been decided whether the same should be facilitated
from the uncertain Godavari canal or from the nearby Nilwande Dam or the Dharna Dam.
And even if so, then arrangements have to made for the water to be conveyed from these Dams to Shirdi
for which the old WTP & Distribution system has to be modified accordingly with stronger and increased capacity system.
Also, the exact amount of how many litres of Water should be sourced from these Dams, has yet to be worked out.
Source: http://www.esakal.com
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"Water dOes nOt knOw Mathematics,
bUt yEt eAch drOp Of wAter cOunts !!!"
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drOplet drOpper
- rOhit beHaL