#mywaterstory- Ayyappa Masagi
Ayyappa Masagi also known as the Water Warrior has facilitated the development of numerous solutions to India’s water scarcity problem. His contribution has resulted in many communities, farms, and towns becoming more water-efficient over the years. Villagers on the borders of Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh have fondly nicknamed him “Water Gandhi.”
He hails from a village named Nagaral in North Karnataka’s Gadag district, which used to be a drought-prone area. As a child, he woke up at 3 AM and walked several kilometers every day with his mother to help bring water to his family. It was for the same reason he developed a passion for water conservation. After graduating, he began his career as a mechanical engineer with Larsen & Toubro in Bangalore, where he worked for over 23 years. While still in L&T, he worked as a one-man army on weekends, assisting farmers with non-irrigated agricultural practices and urban residents with rooftop rainwater gathering and borewell recharge.
He was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2004 for his efforts to conserve water in the agricultural sector. He then formed the non-profit Water Literacy Foundation (WLF) in September 2005 to reach out to more individuals and aid them. Three years later, he launched Rain Water Concepts Pvt. Ltd. to financially support WLF’s work and provide everyone with efficient water-saving strategies. He was motivated to serve all suffering communities in need of a solution that would provide them with clean, safe drinking water on a daily basis.
As Mr. Ayyappa, has been so keen on water conservation he made sure that his household was no different. He has made specific changes to make it as water-efficient as possible, including building a rooftop rainwater harvesting structure and collecting greywater in an outdoor pit to recharge groundwater. He built a structure where he collects wastewater from his house and sends it to the farm, where it gets used as manure. He solely engages in organic farming and has a bio-gas unit as well. He recalls how it all began when he had 100 coconut trees on his farm, one of which was in poor shape. He immediately began collecting grey water from his house and transferring it to his farm to water this specific tree. Today, he has over 400 incredibly healthy coconut trees along with a feasible strategy in place.
Mr. Ayyappa has been instrumental in building several lakes and water conservation initiatives all over the country along with the revitalization of over 1000 dry boreholes. He has also constructed over 700 artificial lakes, and his name has been published in the Limca Book of World Records. His initiatives have contributed to the transformation of over 25,000 hectares of dry land into wetland by harvesting greywater and rainwater.
He says, “If we harvest rainwater and greywater daily, we can celebrate every festival but, if we allow it to flow we will eventually face drought.”
Mr. Ayyappa has authored Bhageeratha: War on Water Crisis, Converting Dry Land into Wet Land; he discusses his personal experiences with water challenges along with his accomplished projects. The book also teaches readers several strategies for conserving and replenishing our valuable resource- Water.
We are inspired by Mr. Ayyappa’s desire to solve India’s water crisis by working with communities at the ground level and making every drop count.
