Need Water... Call Me

Working as Project Manager in L&T with monthly salary of fifty thousand. Without a thought and putting the future of 3 daughters at risk, Ayyappa Masagi resigned his job... for the sake of water. He is living for the past 30 years to conserve every water drop that falls on the earth. In the process, he created more than 500 lakes, revived more than 90 thousand dried up borewells, brought lakhs of acres of drought hit lands back to cultivation. He achieved the "Limca Book of Records" for securing more than 7000 crore litres of water into the earth.

There was a barren land of 200 acres near Chilamathur village in Anantapur district. There was not a single drop of water even after digging deep bores. Ayyappa bought this land 5.5 years ago. After 1 year, the original owner of the land came to visit on what he was doing with the land and he was awestruck with the scene before him. 84 acres of the land is filled with rich cultivation of Finger Millet (Ragi), Pearl Millets (Bajra), Tomato, Beans, Onions, Green Chilli, etc. In the land where there was not a single drop of water, there were 4 lakes and 5 borewells. There were tens of farmers working on these lands alongwith learning to create water and also earning a salary of Rs. 16,000. This magic all happened due to a single rain. There are thousands of such victories in his 30 years of journey. He attributes all these successes to the water crisis he has grown up since childhood.

His native is Nagaral village in Gadag district of Karnataka. His father, Mahadevaappa, did agriculture on a rented farm. Since there was scarcity of underground water, his father used to do farming by conserving rain water without depending on borewells. Having grown up seeing him, Ayyappa got interested in agriculture. They faced lot of hardships for water during summer season. His mother used to wake him up at 3 in the morning and they travelled few miles for fetching drinking water. This was a common scenario in summer season since his childhood. He then decided to study well and find a solution to this water problem. But his father did not like studies. He tried to stop Ayyappa from going to school. His house did not have electricity. Since kerosene prices were also high, they lit the lamp only in case of very urgent task. But one day, his father saw that Ayyappa had lit the lamp for studying and beat him. He went crying to his teacher house.

His school teacher observed his interest for studies and told him to study in his house for as many hours and days required. He ate at his house, studied in teacher's house and did small tasks for petty amounts. He completed tenth class without getting much noticed by his father. He wanted to study in science group in Intermediate but since he couldn't afford Rs. 450, he joined in commerce batch. He completed Inter in first class and got a seat in ITI. Even though he qualified for electrician course, he could get seat in Fitter course by stating some trivial reasons. His mother sold her 8 grams of gold and gave the money for the fees. After completing ITI, he joined BEML (Bharath Earth Movers Limited) for salary of 750 rupees. After few years, he got job in L&T (Larsen & Turbo). He joined a diploma course in Mechanical Engineering while doing job. He used to complete 8 hours work in just 4 hours and use the remaining time for studying without getting into the notice of higher officials.

Having finished diploma, he did a PG in SQC (Statistical Quality Control) which could help in promotion in office. He passed the course in distinction where his managers were finding it difficult to complete the course. He got promoted to officer rank in the Quality Control section. Climbing up the ladder slowly, he attained the post of Project Manager. Even though he was working, his desire to do agriculture using modern methods and to solve water crisis never cease to run in mind. He bought 6 acres of land in a village. He decided to experiment new agricultural techniques over the weekend. He began cultivation of rain intensive crops like coffee and rubber. Due to good rains in the first 2 years, harvest was very good. But due to drought in the third year, crops got dried up. In the fourth year, the harvest got washed away in the floods. The hut which he made in the fields also got washed away in the floods and had to spend the whole night on a tree. He was unable to use the water which was visible in front of me. He felt that if we could conserve the water during rains and floods, they could be of great help. So, he meet people like Anna Hazare and Rajendra Singh who were working towards water conservation. With their methods and the methods he learnt from his father since childhood, he experimented on techniques of conserving water.

He made small holes in a small area of the land and made sure that water get percolated very deep. In the empty land, he dug up adjacent pits with specific dimensions. He believed that it would restore water to the dried up borewells. There were good rains the following year and as a result the water percolated well in the land. There was not much rains for the next 2 years. But his harvest never decreased and borewells looked surplus with water. On the other hand, all the neighbouring fields in the village are getting dried up. Farmers were surprised looking at his fields and farming methods. They asked Ayyappa to teach those methods. Gradually, with the help of his Borewell recharging techniques, he made sure that the lands in the village have borewells with full of water always. This was his first taste of victory.

He propagated the farming methods to surrounding villages and conducted weekend programs to enlighten the farmers about storing rain water. At that time, he was moved on the problem faced by Ardeshanahelli village. The villagers believed that the dried up reservoirs and borewells could not be restored and abandoned them. A pharma company took advantage of the situation and released toxic wastes into the reservoirs and borewells. As a result, more than 2 km of underground water got polluted. He convinced the villagers and started to restore water to the borewells using the recharging techniques. He developed a process which could bring polluted water to usable form. After few months, for even small rains, the reservoirs and borewells became abundant with water. This success has come up in Media. As a result, the number of farmers approaching him gradually increased. His life balance got disturbed with job, family and farmer service. He felt that he couldn't achieve his goal while doing job. With that he resigned his 55,000 rupees salary job without telling at home. At that time, he had 3 unmarried daughters and a son. Even though his wife was against the decision as it put the children future at risk, he believed in his ideology and went ahead boldly.

While conducting programs to increase water availability in fields, he joined an NGO to learn modern water storing techniques. The stipend of 5000 rupees he got from this NGO supported his family for a long time. Gradually, there was an increase in the number of farmers who were succeeded using his programs. Having heard of his success stories, Rajendra Singh, popularly known as "Water Gandhi", came to Karnataka from Rajasthan to witness them personally. Next day, he was contacted by Ashoka Group which encourages noble ideas and was granted fellowship of 30,000 rupees monthly for the next 3 years. It suggested him to start an NGO to increase the spread of service. That is how he started 'Water Literacy Foundation' in 2005. He had brought thousands of acres of barren land back to cultivation under this foundation. He had also restored water to several dried up borewells. Created more than 500 lakes. He conducted more than 4000 awareness campaigns for lakhs of farmers in thousands of villages. Ashoka Group warned that doing free service might have financial impact on the NGO in the long run. With their suggestion, he started 'Rain Water Concepts' company in 2008 which focuses on increasing water storage in Apartments, Corporate offices, factories and residential communities. He was using the money from this company to fund his NGO.

Ayyappa has constructed more than 500 lakes with his rainwater storage methods. He personally recharged 2000 borewells and helped to restore water to around 90 thousand dried up borewells through his awareness campaigns. More than 700 hectares of land in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, etc are getting cultivated with his water storage methods. As a result, he stood in the 'Limca Book of Records' for his victories. Through his "Rain Water Concepts" company, he could help to increase water storage and make several commercial places as water self-sufficient. His clients include Wipro, Tata, Pepsi, Nestle, Bisleri, L&T and 70 other such companies, more than 200 apartments, more than 3000 houses and more than 50 educational institutions.

Across all his projects, he was able to conserve more than 7000 crore litres of rain water. Usually rain water percolates to about 3-4 inches into the ground. But using Ayyappa's methods, water is able to penetrate to 15 to 150 inches into the ground. He is said to have developed more than 100 methods for water conservation as per the need. Foreigners visit him to learn about his water conservation practices. He is always ready to help the farmers. He can be reached at 09448379497 for any requirement.

"I might have faced many failures in life, but never faced a single failure on my journey to increase water storage. If we could save just 30 percent of the rain water, borewells and lakes would be full of water even in drought. We need not depend on rivers for agriculture. I have proved this in over thousands of acres. My goal is to see India as water efficient nation by the year 2020. I have been going forward with the same goal for the past 30 years. I have lived so far for water and will live as a water savior till my last."