A water system sponsored by the Lions Club of Byculla and members of the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) Trust was inaugurated on September 17, 2016 by president Vistasp and Bakhtawar Sachinwala, Captain Percy and Arin Master, Cyrus and Kamal Disawala, Percy and Zenobia Kaikobad, Behram and Zarine Rabadi, Percy and Arnie Buhariwala and Sorab Balsara of the Club in village Zavda, two-and-a-half hours from Navsari in the Dangs district of south Gujarat. As a result of this project, 11 Zoroastrian families as well as inhabitants of surrounding areas will have access to water for drinking, domestic use and irrigating their fields. Since the system is run on solar power, the villagers will no longer have to depend on village water or electricity, notes an email from Dinshaw Tamboly, managing trustee of the WZO Trust Funds who had coordinated with the Lions Club in implementing the project.
(Clockwise, from top): Dinshaw Tamboly, Capt Percy Master
and others at inauguration; plaque; solar panels
For over 25 years the WZO Trust team has been carrying out welfare activities for Zoroastrians in the villages of south Gujarat. When the Masters along with Percy Kaikobad had visited some villages in mid-2015 to see first-hand the work that was being done by the WZO Trust, they willingly collaborated on a joint project that would make a change for the better in the lives of people living there.
This is inhospitable terrain, where most people stay in huts without any infrastructure worth the name. In 2014 WZO Trust began to replace huts with cottages made of brick and mortar. But water remained a problem, the only source being a couple of wells. Members of the 11 Zoroastrian families had to trudge long distances to draw water from the village well, with the women experiencing the most hardship. The WZO Trust checked out the subterranean water table and, with funds provided by the Lions Club, drilled a bore well, installed a submersible pump operated by power from solar panels and constructed a tower from which water is pumped into a 3,000 liter tank and then piped to the cottages of the 11 families, writes Tamboly.
At the inauguration, Percy Master observed that the solar panels function even in cloudy weather, generating enough energy to operate the pump. In an email Master informed Parsiana that Aspandiar Bharucha of Solar Lab who conceived, planned and executed the project said that this was due to new technology. Tamboly’s email states that the WZO Trust expressed gratitude to Bharucha as well as to dedicated team members Aspi Ambapardiwala and Sarosh Gazder who saw the project through. All three made innumerable visits to Zavda to deal with the frequent challenges that arose due to lack of infrastructure such as non-availability or professional carpenters and plumbers.