The lack of water in the Tribal Regions of India has lead to extreme poverty among peoples that live in this part of the world. This is an area that suffers extreme rain during the monsoon season two months out of the year. But, experiences extreme arid conditions for the remaining 10 months.
 
The Lewisville Morning Rotary Club and the Nasik Rotary Club is proposing a $33,000 Vocational Training Team Grant to study the best possible way to give these peoples a way of capturing the water received during the monsoon season and storing sufficient amounts to last the entire year. In addition, the team will study how to provide safe drinking water, water for hygienic needs, water for husbandry and plant growth and water for personal sanitation.
 
A portion of the funding for the grant is intended to cover travel cost for a team of 6 members from LMR, HVR and one non Rotarian to travel to India to see for themselves the topographical and environmental conditions that will require sustainable solutions to this water management and conservation problem. Our team is made up of a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, a geologist, a water scientist, a business manager and a person well experienced in Indian cultural issues. You may know them, John Pokorny, Steve Homeyer, Fred Busche (HVR), Michael Bastian, Frances AlWaiely and Carolyn Wright.
 
The remaining portion of the grant request is to bring a team with 7 members from India with similar training and experience to see for themselves over 100 year of water management technique development and expertise. Texas, being similar in its arid climate and extreme weather conditions is well known world wide for it's highly developed water management systems and programs.
 
Together the two teams will assemble a recommended water management master plan that will be used to establish a series of projects that can be implemented on a long term yearly basis to address all the needs of the residents and ultimately move them out of their continuous poverty cycle. The team will recommend priorities for each project that focus on health and sanitation initially and ultimately build to being able to provide water for irrigation and husbandry. 
 
At this point the project has been approved by leaders in both clubs and the two districts involved. The next step is to wait for The Rotary Foundation to approve its portion of the Grant request. We are hopeful to receive this approval in time to purchase tickets for our team to leave DFW May 17.
 
When the Nasik team comes to Texas June 16, we will be working with fellow Rotary members from Lewisville Morning and surrounding communities to host team members, provide transportation etc. It will be a fantastic cross-cultural experience. Many of our members recall fondly the GSE team from New Zealand that stayed with us six years ago.
 
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