On Monday, September 28, 2015 we traveled about 75 miles outside of Bangalore to Gubbi Taluk, in the Tumkur District. It took us three hours to get there. There are 11 different villages with 520 families and about 18,000 people. The area is one of the most drought-affected blocks of the District. The wells that are in place are about 600 feet deep and the water table regularly drops--sometimes daily and sometimes by season--and water is not available. The wells need to be 1,200 feet deep to be dependable. Village women walk up to three miles each way with pots to bring water to their families when there is water.
This man is standing by a village water station waiting for the electricity to come on--it only runs about two hours per day--to see if the well will provide water that day. We are told that if dependable wells are installed, the government will install more electrical capacity and will provide power more hours per day.
Some of the hard working women of the villages.
Life is not easy in this part of the world.
No sanitation...
No medical help...
Very little water...
Little food to eat...
Little food to eat...
They wash their clothes on a rock outside their homes or on the river.
They cook over fires...
and yet they smile.
The electricity finally comes on!
Water flows again for 45 minutes to an hour.
And then they wait...
Again and again.
When there is no water they wait for the water truck to come twice per week.
As we travelled between villages we saw fields of banana trees, coconut trees, arecanut trees, mango trees as well as these pomegranate
bushes.
Here are examples of village homes. Some are fortunate to have a motorcycle to get to their day-labor jobs in the fields.
Houses of sticks alongside a water station in a village.
The village elementary school had two small buildings housing about 50 children.
They were enthusiastic and very smart kids. We talked to them about getting a good education and helping their community.
Their languages teacher spoke very good English.
We had them say their ABCs and count to ten.
It was so fun!
The high school had students from about age 12 to 16. They were very disciplined and attentive as we spoke to them.
The children kindly asked if we could possibly bring them some sports equipment; the teachers asked for library books and science teaching materials.
They gave us flower leis that weighed about four pounds each!
Neither school has water.
A special friend came to see us as we traveled to another village.
While we were in the area, we stopped by to check on the status of another LDS Charities water project that was installed in 2011-12. Here, along with village leaders, is a look at the water tower which continues to provide the needed pressure to move the water to the village water stations taps. (the tower is not really leaning--it's just the angle of the picture and the ineptness of the photographer!)
As we left, one of the village leaders (foreground) and his family gave us six coconuts right off their trees. They pleaded with us to kindly find a way to get their community some good, clean, reliable water. We told them we would do out best.
A special friend came to see us as we traveled to another village.
While we were in the area, we stopped by to check on the status of another LDS Charities water project that was installed in 2011-12. Here, along with village leaders, is a look at the water tower which continues to provide the needed pressure to move the water to the village water stations taps. (the tower is not really leaning--it's just the angle of the picture and the ineptness of the photographer!)
As we left, one of the village leaders (foreground) and his family gave us six coconuts right off their trees. They pleaded with us to kindly find a way to get their community some good, clean, reliable water. We told them we would do out best.
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