What is Darvish Yu Water Fund?

In 2007, Mr. Darvish established “Darvish Yu Water Fund” which aims at providing safe water for people suffering from water problems such as shortage of water and contamination of water in collaboration with Japan Water Forum. He contributes to the Fund by donating 100,000 JPY at every one of his winning games during the regular season. 115 million JPY have been donated by him so far with more than 4.1 million JPY donations from the public.

Outline of the project
1)Name of the Project
Vulnerability Reduction of Desert Communities in India through Safe and Sustainable Sources of Drinking Water

2)Implementation body
Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF)
http://jalbhagirathi.org/

3)Project site
Jawaharpura village, Barmer District, Western Rajasthan state, India

India	Rajasthan state

4)Period
January to July, 2016

5)Beneficiaries
11 households, 59 persons

6)Problem
Due to severe scarcity of water resources, the village faces a high degree of  vulnerability and water stress.

• There is neither the river nor the sea near the village, and the annual precipitation is in the range of  100 to 200mm.
• More than 50% of the houses have no means of collecting and storing water in their households. They depend on open holes to store water temporarily.
• Grand water is saline and not suitable for drinking.
• Water from the water tanker is expensive. People have to purchase the water and the expenses are nearly 30-40% of their income.
• Women and girls have to walk an average of 3 to 4 kilometers daily through sand dunes to collect water.

7)Activities

• Survey at the village
• Community mobilization and identifying beneficiaries
• Jal Sabha (water user associations) formation
• Construction of the rainwater harvesting tanks
• Training and capacity building

8)Outcome

• Access to safe drinking water (11 households)
• Time saved
• Economic benefit
• Improvement in quality of life

Photographs

Collecting water from a pond	Walking through sand dunes to collect water

Constructing the rainwater harvesting tank	Constructed rainwater harvesting tank

(Reported by Sae Ishihara, Manager)