Rajkot: “I have no light in my eyes, but I have the spark that can ignite the lives of our next generation.” Meet Mahendrasinh Zala, 60, from Rajkot, who hit a curveball that Jeevan threw just outside his limits, and how.
While she had to take off her shoes early from her government job after losing 90 percent of her eyesight, Zala didn’t lose her sight – to ease the problems of annual water shortages.
And so, instead of sitting idle in despair about his disability, retire Male started water harvesting Project in his Kothariya Colony house in Rajkot. The success that the sexagenarian got in his venture was enough to earn him the coveted award of the Department of Jal Shakti – ‘Water Hero’. Today, Zala harvests about 1 lakh liters of water every monsoon.
“I am doing it for my future generation. People usually save money for their kids, but I saving waterZala told TOI.
In 1992, Zala suffered serious injuries to both eyes while playing volleyball. Suffering from retinal detachment, the mechanical engineer gradually lost his sight. He was working as a Supervising Instructor in an ITI and finally when he lost his eyesight, in 2013 Purblind Zala opted for VRS.
Zala challenges himself to train his ability towards water harvesting activity and after much struggle has found seven different types. tank on its two terraces. Zala’s brother Gajendrasinh, who lives in the adjoining house, helped his brother to connect all the tanks to the pipeline and also put a trap in the pipe to filter the dust and garbage that came along with the rain water from the roof.
Zala stores 12,000 liters of water in these tanks and whatever overflows from the tank goes directly underground through a network of pipes. He warned, “If we do not harvest water now, there will not be enough water to drink in the future and humans will be forced to drink their tears.”
“I collect 1 lakh liters of water in my 200 yard lawn outside my house. I showed it to the officials of the Ministry of Jalshakti, who felicitated me as a ‘water hero’,” Zala said, adding, however, he is yet to receive a cash reward of Rs 10,000 from the ministry, which he said was meant for Will be used in laying more pipelines for water harvesting.
It was a great difficulty negotiating the narrow staircase of her old house every day, climbing the roof between all the pipes and tanks, for which Zala found a solution. He tied ropes to the ceiling and walked using the ropes as guides not to go beyond the ropes or color marked areas, which he painted with dark colors so that he could see blurry images.
Every year it is a pre-monsoon ritual for Zala Zala to check the pipes and religiously do the fittings before the rains come. This year also he will complete the same ritual by next month. Zala’s son Yashraj Singh and nephew Harshdeep Singh also help him in water harvesting whenever possible.
While she had to take off her shoes early from her government job after losing 90 percent of her eyesight, Zala didn’t lose her sight – to ease the problems of annual water shortages.
And so, instead of sitting idle in despair about his disability, retire Male started water harvesting Project in his Kothariya Colony house in Rajkot. The success that the sexagenarian got in his venture was enough to earn him the coveted award of the Department of Jal Shakti – ‘Water Hero’. Today, Zala harvests about 1 lakh liters of water every monsoon.
“I am doing it for my future generation. People usually save money for their kids, but I saving waterZala told TOI.
In 1992, Zala suffered serious injuries to both eyes while playing volleyball. Suffering from retinal detachment, the mechanical engineer gradually lost his sight. He was working as a Supervising Instructor in an ITI and finally when he lost his eyesight, in 2013 Purblind Zala opted for VRS.
Zala challenges himself to train his ability towards water harvesting activity and after much struggle has found seven different types. tank on its two terraces. Zala’s brother Gajendrasinh, who lives in the adjoining house, helped his brother to connect all the tanks to the pipeline and also put a trap in the pipe to filter the dust and garbage that came along with the rain water from the roof.
Zala stores 12,000 liters of water in these tanks and whatever overflows from the tank goes directly underground through a network of pipes. He warned, “If we do not harvest water now, there will not be enough water to drink in the future and humans will be forced to drink their tears.”
“I collect 1 lakh liters of water in my 200 yard lawn outside my house. I showed it to the officials of the Ministry of Jalshakti, who felicitated me as a ‘water hero’,” Zala said, adding, however, he is yet to receive a cash reward of Rs 10,000 from the ministry, which he said was meant for Will be used in laying more pipelines for water harvesting.
It was a great difficulty negotiating the narrow staircase of her old house every day, climbing the roof between all the pipes and tanks, for which Zala found a solution. He tied ropes to the ceiling and walked using the ropes as guides not to go beyond the ropes or color marked areas, which he painted with dark colors so that he could see blurry images.
Every year it is a pre-monsoon ritual for Zala Zala to check the pipes and religiously do the fittings before the rains come. This year also he will complete the same ritual by next month. Zala’s son Yashraj Singh and nephew Harshdeep Singh also help him in water harvesting whenever possible.