Maharashtra: Father-son use lockdown time to solve water woes

Even as people are trying to find different ways to overcome boredom during the lockdown, a father-son duo from a village in Maharashtra decided to utilise the time to dig a well to solve the problem of water scarcity in their area. As if the nature was also happy and decided to support them in their endeavour, the duo succeeded in finding water after digging to a depth of about 16 feet in the ground.

The family, residing in Mulzara village of Nanded district, is now overjoyed to have water available for their needs anytime they want. Siddharth Devake said the idea to do something constructive struck him after his job as an auto-rickshaw driver came to a halt due to the lockdown. He also used to work with a local band, but following restrictions on movement to contain the spread of COVID-19, his both sources of income dried up.

To add to their woes, they were also facing water shortage and had to walk to a source located at some distance in the village to fetch water for their daily needs. Devake then got the idea to use the lockdown time to dig a well in the premises of their residence.

"Due to the lockdown, there were no customers for my auto-rickshaw service. The local band with which I used to work also ran out of business and we faced losses. My son and I got fed up of just sitting at home and hence, we decided to dig a well to solve the water problem," he said.

While Devake used to dig the ground, his teenaged son Pankaj would go down in the pit to clear up the mud.

"I used to fill mud in a bucket and my father pulled it up. We went like this 16 feet down and now we have water here," the son said.

Devake said both of them worked on the project for three to four days and were able to create a water source in their own residential premises.

"Now, my children can fetch water from the well whenever they need," he said happily.