SHIRDI'S WATER WOES:

-
WATER PURIFICATION MACHINES DONATED -
16th April`2011

During this year, approx 2 crore 70 lakh devotees have visited

Shirdi, signaling a huge demand for pure Drinking Water.
And this demand is bound to only grow further,
as about 50,000 people on an average visit the temple on week
days & 1.5 lakh on weekends. While, on special occasions, this
figure goes upto 3 lakhs. At present, packaged Drinking Water
worth approx Rs.1 lakh is sold every day in Shirdi.

So, to provide pure drinking water free of cost to all devotees

coming to Shirdi for Baba's Darshan,
an Andhra Pradesh based NGO, Raju Vegesna Foundation has
recently, at a cost of approx Rs.30 lakhs,
installed 22 Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Purification Machines in
the premises of the Sai Baba Temple @ Shirdi.
About 30,000 devotees are quenching their thirst with this free pure
drinking water every day.

Also, as the number of devotees visiting Shirdi has doubled in the

last 5 years, Shirdi & its nearby villages have developed very
rapidly thus the problem of continuous water supply to Shirdi has
become very crucial.

For which, in early 2009, Raju Vegesna Foundation had approached

the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust with a proposal to install a Water
Purification plant in Shirdi so that the devotees visiting Shirdi will no
longer have to buy bottled drinking Water.
The Shirdi Sai Trust had given its approval for this proposal for
which the Raju Vegesna Foundation also donated a Water
Purification plant.

In Today's date, the work on this Water Purification plant is almost

done and is designed to cater to the large numbers of devotees
visiting Shirdi on any given day together with the Sai Prasadalaya,
Sai Baba Hospital, the Temple premises, Dharamshala,
Common Toilet Complexes, Staff housing colonies and also two
villages namely Kankuri & Pimpalgaon to which the Shirdi Sai
Sansthan's own independent water supply and distribution system
supplies Water.
But the crucial issue of the continuous Water supply to this
Water Purification Plant yet remains.
The Shirdi Sai Sansthan Trust has not yet decided,
whether the Water for this Plant should be sourced from the
Nilwande Dam or the Dharna Dam.

There are no rivers flowing in Shirdi nor any significant Water

bodies such as Lakes & Ponds present, in and around Shirdi.
Two Streams namely Lendi and Sira which used to flow near Sai
Baba's Samadhi Temple have now dried up.
So, the main source of Surface Water supply to Shirdi is from the
Right Bank Canal of the Godavari river.
But, this canal is very dangerous & uncertain as it bursts every year
and can create a havoc if it burst in some remote area as then it
would take a lot of time to repair it.
It is difficult to say as to when these canals on the Godavari river
will be permanently repaired.

Water for the domestic / irrigation needs of Shirdi town is met

substantially by its ground water supply, but as for the needs of
surface Water, it has not yet been decided whether the same
should be facilitated from the uncertain Godavari canal or from the
nearby Nilwande Dam or the Dharna Dam.

And even if so, then arrangements have to made for the water to
be conveyed from these Dams to Shirdi for which the old WTP &
Distribution system has to be modified accordingly with stronger
and increased capacity system. Also, the exact amount of how
many litres of Water should be sourced from these Dams, has yet
to be worked out.
 "Water dOes nOt knOw Mathematics,
bUt yEt eAch drOp Of wAter cOunts !!!"

drOplet drOpper
- rOhit beHaL