PwC India Foundation to begin second project in Bundelkhand, UP
One year after the completion of a drought resilience project in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh, global professional services firm PwC has decided to initiate another project in the same district through its PwC India Foundation. The CSR implementation body will work on the water supply and sanitation of the village of Dharaupur.
In September this year, the PwC India Foundation (PwCIF) will celebrate the completion of a decade of operations in India. The foundation was established in 2008 as the Big Four firm’s corporate social responsibility wing, directing its efforts towards the improvement of education, environmental sustainability and water sanitation and hygiene.
Over the last decade, PwCIF has completed over 80 projects in India, which involves the voluntary contribution of 28,000 hours of work, and has directly and indirectly impacted nearly 90,000 people so far. One such project, which comes under the ambit of its humanitarian response arm, included a collaborative effort with the Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan to work on building drought resilience in Budelkhand, Uttar Pradesh.
The efforts were specifically concentrated in 10 villagers in Hamirpur, and were implemented over a year between 2016 and 2017. Now, a year on from its completion, the project has brought drought resilience capabilities to over 2,000 families across these rural centres.
Water management groups, or ‘Pani Panchayats,’ were created under the project, and over 90% of those involved with these groups are now reportedly well-versed in sustainable agricultural practices in the face of low water supply. Eight water harvesting structures created under the project have collectively saved nearly 5,000 cubic metres of water, which will be deployed towards irrigation and ground water replenishment.
Encouraged by this success, the firm has now initiated another project in the same Sarila Block in the Hamirpur district, this time in the village of Dharaupur. This time, the focus will lie on water, sanitation and hygiene, and will include active support through the establishment of reliable infrastructure.
This will include construction of storage units, the revamping of toilet facilities, and the fixing of matka filters in every household in Daharupur to ensure the availability of clean drinking water. In all, the project will directly affect just over 50 households in the village.
PwC has picked up one of the most pertinent issues in India with its work on water supply. The country is heavily dependent on agricultural practices, and persistent droughts in regions across the country have been a cause of grief for many rural communities, leading to thousands of farmer suicides annually.
