Rishi Raj Agarwal is the founder of the NGO that focuses on the water crisis the world is facing and further going to face. Save water save lives has worked to promote advocacy of clean, safe & sustainable use of water. “Save water save lives aims at reducing the number of problems faced by many of various states in India by not working at the ground level but also creating polls and campaign to know where and what are the main issues that are causing water stress and tackle the situation” says Mr. Rishi Raj Agarwal.
World Health Organization estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas by the end of 2030. Nearly 600 million Indians are already facing high-to-extreme water stress where more than 40 % of the annually available surface water is used every year and about 200,000 people dying every year due to inadequate access to safe water, the situation is likely to worsen as the water demand will exceed the supply by 2050, said the ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI) report, released on 14 June.
Since groundwater in India is depleted at 10-25 mm per year between 2002 and 2016. India holds about 4% of global freshwater and 16% of its population. Water-intensive agricultural practices and growing water demand for industrial, energy production and domestic purposes are significantly stressing India’s limited water resource, and this could lead to many major issues ranging from health to the drop in the economy.
The day when a city’s taps dry out and people have to stand in line to collect a daily quota of water is called day zero. In 17 countries, that are home to one-quarter of the world’s population, there is extremely high-water stress, according to data from WRI’s Aqueduct tool. Cities like Cape Town & Chennai nearly ran out of the water, but they managed to avert Day Zero with solutions that were creative and effective but far from perfect. In Cape Town, there were mile-long queues of people waiting for hours for water. In Chennai, tanker trucks from faraway cities distributed water that was sometimes black and looked and smelled like sewage. But the crisis revealed a dire picture of social inequity in both cities. While the rich could afford their solutions, the poor had to wait for government help. For many of them, every day is Day Zero.
Apart from his passion and involvement in Save Water Save Lives Rishi Agarwalla is not only a great philanthropist and environmentalist but is also involved in various charitable works. He is also CERA’s (Construction Equipment Rental Association) Regional head for Maharashtra, who has led from the forefront in implementing ideas and mapping out the way forward. CERA is India’s largest equipment rental association which represents India’s construction equipment rental industry nationally and internationally. Rishi Agarwalla has the vision to do 5,00,000 tree plantations over the period in his life. He has already planted more than 20,000 trees out of which 5003 at a single go with the help of Rotary Club in Gujarat. He has also undertaken several blood donation camps. He is highly religious and has constructed temple, which is a Community Development Centre for in a Rameshwar village in Kutch.