Canacona: Even as Goa reels under water scarcity, a senior resident of Dapot in Loliem has attracted the attention of everyone around by supplying water to nearly 20 poor households from his own well.
Balkrishna Ganesh Aiya, 69, recalling his life’s journey said he took voluntary retirement after working as a drawing teacher for 17 years due to a dispute in the family.
Thereafter he shifted to Dapot a village by the NH66 road in Loliem-Polem village Panchayat.
Due to the location of the place at a height and rocky terrain obtaining water was a huge task in itself and his family had to walk for miles to fetch water from the neighbouring villages.
That is when Aiya decided to dig a well; the design of the well itself is exemplary.
“As the depth increased the labourers had difficulty in getting oxygen below and I had to alter the design from the way traditional wells are dug and I decided to create a tunnel and 3 windows at half way through the well for proper ventilation and air circulation”, said Aiya.
Once his well was ready he witnessed the sufferings of the poor people living in his neighbourhood whose entire day was being wasted in order to get few gallons of water from quite a distance.
“I conversed with the residents who had no resources to build a well and offered them water from my well by laying a PVC pipeline till their houses, although I take nominal charges to cover up my electricity charges and maintenance of the pipeline and pump they are satisfied as they can devote their time to other jobs”, Aiya explained.
Even wild life lovers are all praise for Aiya as he is quenching the thirst of not only humans but of birds and animals too by keeping water in containers around his house.
For his generosity in offering water to the needy both humans and animals he has been bestowed with a title of ‘Jalsamrat” (water emperor) by the people of Loliem-Polem.
Speaking to Herald, Aiya said that his work gives him self satisfaction and eradicates worries and other tensions of the materialistic world.
Taking note of his selfless service, the multifaceted personality was conferred with Gourav Puraskar at a hands of then chief minister Digambar Kamat for his contribution to the society as a sculptor, farmer and for other activities of his.
Locals flock to his house as he cures common ailments with his traditional medicinal preparations too.
Expressing his worries about the steadfast depletion of the underground water table he says the digging of bore wells has contributed to the drying of wells and should not be encouraged at any cost.
Balkrishna Aiya the ‘water king’ of Loliem-Polem has surpassed and surprised all as he has converted an arid rocky land into a paradise complete with all types of plants and surrounding animals co-existing and thriving to their fullest.
