Elderly digs well to solve water crisis

Bhopal: One may call his mission a misadventure considering his age.

But, septuagenarian Sitaram Lodhi, resident of Hadua village in Chhatarpur district under the parched Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, has defied his age to dig a 46 ft deep well “single-handedly” over a period of three years to solve the water problem in his area.

The well had collapsed no less than three times during monsoons in last three years.

But, Sitaram (71) had never given up and used to begin afresh every time the walls of the well caved in by going ahead with his digging work.

He hardly got a helping hand in his mission to create a permanent water source for the villagers.

“Leave alone the villagers, even my own family members used to stop me from digging the well, describing my work as misadventure. Villagers had often called me mad reminding me of my age. No one bothered to give a helping hand in my work,” Sitaram told this newspaper on Tuesday.

He was thrilled to announce that the well has not dried up this summer so far.

Sitaram who lives with his brother’s family recounted that the water crisis in the village, particularly during summer, had moved him to take up the mission to dig the well.

“I vividly remember the day when our neighbour had to move house to house to get a pot of water to give to his sick child. It was sometime in the month of May in 2015. The very next day, I picked up the shovel and started digging the well in an open ground in the village,” he recalled.

The well used to collapse during monsoon.

But, he did not get disheartened by it and used to begin digging the well afresh after the monsoon season.

The well is now the only source of water for the villagers since the lone hand pump in the village has stopped functioning this summer.