Category: News & Updates

Indian Express Article

INDIAN EXPRESS:

1st Sept. 2013

Writer, painter and now a crusader of water conservation

MANASI PHADKE

Aabid Surti, a writer and a painter, grew up in a room that he shared with 10 others. Sleeping on the pavement was not unusual for him. Women standing in a queue before a single tap in a ghetto of Dongri and fights breaking out over who would fill up their bucket first was a sight that haunted Surti for years.Surti, now 78, runs an NGO (Non Government Organisation) by the name of Drop Dead. Since February 2007, the Mira Road resident has spent Sundays fixing leaking taps for free to save water. “Every single drop of water was so precious in the ghetto. I had the image fixed in my mind for years,” Surti said.

Surti was once at a friend’s place when he found that a tap was leaking. On his next visit three months later, he found the leaking tap still had not been fixed. This prompted him to conceive the idea of Drop Dead.

“I had read somewhere that if a leaking tap is not repaired for a month, it leads to the wastage of nearly 1,000 litres of water,” Surti said.

“People from the lower-income group may not have the funds to call for a plumber the moment a tap starts leaking,” he said. The Nayanagar area of Mira Road is mostly dominated by people from the lower-income group. Sruti along with plumber Riyaz Ahmed goes from one house to the other in the area to fix leaking taps. One of the women volunteers- either Tejal Shah or Diya Patel- also accompanies him. The leaking taps are fixed free of cost.

Every Monday, Surti visits housing societies in the locality and speaks to the respective secretaries about his NGO. Posters of the NGO are put up on the noticeboard of the societies so that residents are familiar with Surti’s team when they visit their houses on Sunday.

In the first year, Surti says, the group visited 1,666 houses in Mira Road and repaired 414 leaking taps.

While Surti was trying to figure out how the finances will be worked out, he got a cash award of Rs 1 lakh for his writing from an Uttar Pradesh organisation associated with literature. Surti used the entire fund for Drop Dead. By 2010, the funds were exhausted. Unable to see how he would cope with the expenses of his NGO, Surti thought he would have to drop the idea of running Drop Dead. However, help came again. Surti won another cash prize, this time an amount of Rs 50,000 for his writing. He again used the funds for the cause that he believes in.

“When you are doing good work and your intentions are good, help comes,” Surti said. Since then, corporate groups and Rotary Clubs have also extended their support. Once when Surti was sitting outside a house while the plumber was fixing the tap inside, the owner of the house asked him to come in. He asked Sruti if his organisation was the brainchild of a political group and what is it that drop Dead gets in return of the services it renders.

“He was a Muslim. So, I asked him if he offers namaaz. He said yes. When I asked him the reason, he said he does it to please God. I said, exactly the same reason why I run this organisation,” Surti said. “Yeh meri ibaadat hain (This is my worship),” he added.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/writer-painter-and-now-a-crusader-of-water-conservation/1162871/

Gulf News

GULF  NEWS

11th July 2013

Aabid Surti: Drop Dead is my biggest achievement

(Special to Weekend Review)

He may be a well-known artist and writer but these days he is preoccupied with dripping taps and the need to conserve water

Archisman Dinda,

  • Aabid Surti is a National Award-winning author, artist, cartoonist and playwright. But when asked about his biggest achievement in life he believes it is his non-governmental organisation — Drop Dead — which has fixed thousands of leaking taps and kept billions of litres of water from being wasted.

This Sunday is no different for the 77-year-old as he fixes leaking taps for free, in the Mira Road suburb where he lives, in Mumbai, India. Drop Dead, has just one employee, one volunteer and one inspiration — him. “Lots of water saved. Hundreds of people are made aware of the need to save water. And for all the hard work, we are sometimes offered free lunch,” he says. Surti started Drop Dead Foundation in 2007 after a leaking tap at a friend’s house bothered him so much that it became his cause.

Born on May 5, 1935, in Gujarat, Surti obtained a Diploma in Arts from the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art in 1959. He published his first story “Tootela Farishta” (Fallen Angels) in Gujarati in 1965. Since then, Surti has written numerous short stories, novels, plays, children’s books, comic books, and travelogues. In 1993, he won a National Award for his short-story collection “Teesri Aankh” (third eye).

What inspired you to start Drop Dead?

We are originally from Gujarat. During the Partition in 1947, everybody said that we have to leave for Pakistan, since we are Muslims. Initially we decided to leave, but after reaching Bombay, my father said that whatever may come we will stay back in India, even if we had to die.

My childhood was spent mostly in Bombay’s slums and on pavements. To get a bucket of water from the common tap, my mother had to stand in the queue early in the morning and often she had to fight for her share. This childhood memory kept on haunting me whenever I saw a leaking tap, an overflowing tank, or a bursting pipeline.

Once I went to my friend’s house and saw a leaking tap. When asked, he said that it is very difficult to get plumbers to do such a small job. A few months later when I went back, the tap was still leaking. That made me think about starting this organisation.

I read an article that if one drop of water is wasted every second, 1,000 litres go down the drain every month. An image of 1,000 bottles of water flashed before my eyes. I couldn’t ignore it.

What are Drop Dead’s activities?

It all started in 2007, coincidentally the international year of water. Every Monday, the plumber, a volunteer, and I approach the secretary of a society for permission to fix leaking taps. If the secretary agrees, then we put up posters on the housing society’s noticeboard, on the ground floor or near the lift, with our tagline “Save Every Drop or Drop Dead”. Generally everybody agrees, since everyone understands the problem, but they consider it too minor or too expensive to take immediate attention. The words “Drop Dead” have a great impact on the tenants.On Saturdays, we send pamphlets that explain what Drop Dead is to every resident of the society, so when we arrive on Sunday morning, we get a warm welcome from the members of the housing society. We cover a six-storey building in about three hours. We spend only 10 to 15 minutes travelling by car to reach a targeted building, but the rest of the time, we go from house to house correcting leaky taps.

How do you fund this activity?

Initially, I started with my Rs100,000 [Dh6,037] prize money of the Hindi Sahitya Sansthan Award I received from the Uttar Pradesh government for my literature to kick off this mission. Later, Rs 50,000 was given to me as prize money again for my literature from Maharashtra Government. Every Sunday, we spend around Rs 600 on fixing taps. Mostly it is because of a faulty washer, which we replace at our cost, a mere 50 paise [3 fils] each if bought in wholesale. If any other major replacements are needed, we generally ask the owner of the house to get us spare parts and we do the job for free.

The plumber’s charges and the commute are the real cost of the service. To raise money and to take this initiative to other places, I print T-shirts with Drop Dead logos and sets up stalls at exhibitions and fairs. I spend Rs100 to get a T-shirt made. I ask the buyers to pay me anything above Rs100. Some pay Rs110, some Rs1,000! When you honestly set out to do good for others, the whole universe is there to back you. Not only that, God becomes your fundraiser. When my finances are about to dwindle, Allah pokes the right person and I receive a cheque without asking. This year, Wipro, the Indian information technology giant, gave the Sparrow Award worth Rs50,000 for Drop Dead.

Some well-wishers have also helped us. For example, an owner of a press offered to print pamphlets for free. I asked him to not be foolish. But the proprietor was adamant. Of course, contributions from anyone with no strings attached are always welcome.

What are Drop Dead’s accomplishments so far?

I’ve kept the record of our first year only. During February 2007 to February 2008, we visited 1,666 houses on Mira Road, fixed 414 leaking taps free of charge, and saved about 414,000 litres of water. The response to Drop Dead has been unbelievable. It’s picking up fast like jungle fire, not only in India but all over the globe.

How do people react when they see a National award winner going around fixing taps?

My popularity as an artist is our real strength. I want to remind people, that no matter how busy or important you may be in life, it is equally important to pay attention to small things in our day-to-day lives which will secure our tomorrow.

Through our work, I have realised that it is not that people are ignorant about the world around them but they need to be reminded of their responsibilities as a social being, where saving a drop of water is as important as saving a rupee. You may not be able to save the Ganges or the Yamuna from where you are but you can save a few drops here and there, and those few drops count. I think Allah has given me that responsibility, and I am doing that happily.

I am sacrificing my Sunday mornings for this cause. It’s so simple, so easy for anyone to do it. And that is what I want to convey to all, especially to senior citizens: come out of the retirement cocoon, spend a couple of hours, just do it. If I can, you can.

What are your plans for Drop Dead?

On the immediate to-do list is to hire an office space and more staff, and get a two-wheeler for the plumber to attend to emergency leaks. But the major challenge is to spread the movement to other parts of the country, through local volunteers. I am looking for people who are interested in this. I am ready to give them my logo and everything else. I don’t even want my name on their material. All I want them to do is help save water.

I’ve already started motivating children. The Cosmopolitan School of Mira Road and its staff members are committed to conserve water. Its thousand-plus students are my angels who are carrying forward the message to save water by undertaking campaigns and putting up Drop Dead posters in their buildings.

Media is a very important tool in spreading my message. People should read about the initiative and take things forward in their locality. Nobody needs to pay me a royalty for that, they just need to save water!

(Archisman Dinda is a journalist based in Kolkata.)

Asian Development Bank

Dear Mr. Aabid Surti, 

May we invite you to an online interview on your work in fixing Mumbai’s leaking pipes? This interview will be part of ADB’s water champion series. 

As brief background, our water champions are practitioners who introduce or implement water reforms. We invite them to discuss specific topics on the understanding that other policy and decision makers can learn a lot from their practical insights. Their views are written as interviews, published in ADB’s water website and e-newsletter, Water for All News, which goes to over 10,000 subscribers. 

Please find attached our questions to you as a water champion.  If you agree to this interview, please answer them in any manner comfortable to you, i.e. verbosely, briefly, etc.  Once we receive your written responses, we will reformat them into an online Q and A (about 600 to 800 words) and seek your approval for the final version. Some of the water champions we’ve featured in the past are 

Margaret Catley-Carlson: Willingness to Work with Others for Water 

Bindeshwar Pathak: Crusading for Human and Environmental Dignity 

Maria Lourdes Fernando: Keeping Marikina River in the Pink of Health 

We hope you can join them in our roster of ADB Water Champions. We plan to release the issue by the first week of May. As such, we will appreciate it very much if you can (a) let us know by return email if you agree to the interview by Friday, 19 April; and (b) send us your responses to the attached questions by Friday, 26 April. We would also need high resolution photos of you (profile and in action). 

We recognize your busy schedule and we apologize in advance for the short time frame.  We hope that you will agree to the interview and we look forward to hearing from you on the 19th or earlier. 

Thank you and best regards.

Cezar R. Tigno

Web Writer, Website Manager

Water for All Website

Asian Development Bank

www.adb.org/water

4th Nov 2013

Asian Development Bank

Aabid Surti:

Helping to Fix Mumbai’s Water Supply

27th April 2013

Author Aabid Surti champions water conservation by fixing leaks in Mumbai’s poor households, one pipe at a time.

Bothered by leaking taps at the houses of friends and relatives, Aabid Surti began knocking on neighbors’ doors, accompanied by a plumber, and asking if they have leaking pipes or taps that needed to be fixed. Surti is the founder of Drop Dead Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) that fixes leaks every Sunday morning.

What inspired you to embark on such a big project as fixing Mumbai’s leaks?

My childhood years were spent in a chawl (a large building divided into many separate tenements, offering cheap, basic accommodation to labourers) and on pavement. To get a bucket full of water from the common tap, my mother had to stand in the queue early in the morning and often she had to fight for her right. This childhood memory kept on haunting me whenever I saw a leaking tap, overflowing building tank, or bursting pipeline.

How bad is Mumbai’s leak problem?

The leak problem in ghettos and lower middle class areas is worst. A plumber’s visit costs a minimum of Rs.100, which poor families cannot afford. Construction companies are also partly responsible for using substandard plumbing.

Tell us about Drop Dead. How does it work?

One Sunday in 2007, I hired a plumber and set out to fix leaking pipes or taps at my neighbors’ homes along Mira Road (Mumbai). I was bothered by a leaking tap at a friend’s house that remained unfixed because it was too minor and too costly. This was the birth of Drop Dead Foundation.

“The response to Drop Dead has been unbelievable. It’s picking up fast like jungle fire, not only in India but all over the globe.”

Since then, we have developed a process which we follow like clockwork. On Mondays, the plumber, a volunteer, and I approach the building secretary for permission. If the secretary agrees, then we put up a poster on the housing society’s notice board on the ground floor or near the lift, with our tagline “Save Every Drop or Drop Dead.” The words “Drop Dead” have a great impact on the tenants. On Saturdays, we send pamphlets that explain what Drop Dead is to every home, so when we arrive on Sunday morning, we get a warm welcome from the members of the housing society.

We cover a 6 story building in about 3 hours. We spend only 10 to 15 minutes travelling by car to reach a targetted building, but the rest of the time, we go house to house correcting leaky taps.

What are Drop Dead’s accomplishments so far?

I’ve kept the record of our first year, February 2007 to February 2008 — incidentally 2007 was the International Year of Water. During that period, we visited 1,666 houses on Mira Road, fixed 414 leaking taps free of charge, and saved about 4.14 lakh (414,000) liters of water.

What about financing? How are you able to sustain Drop Dead’s activities?

When you honestly set out to do good for others, the whole universe is there to back you. Not only that, God becomes your fund raiser. When my finances are about to dwindle, God pokes the right person and I receive a check without asking. This year, God poked Wipro which gave the Sparrow Award worth Rs.50, 000 to Drop Dead. Of course, contributions from anyone with no strings attached are always welcome.

How has your work in water with Drop Dead affected your creative work?

So far it has not interfered with my work in any way. But it has certainly inspired me to write a novel based on a fictitious river.

I’m giving my Sunday mornings for this cause. It’s so simple, so easy for anyone to do it. And that is what I want to convey to all, especially to senior citizens: come out of the retirement cocoon, spend a couple of hours, just do it. If I can, you can.

What are your plans for Drop Dead?

I’ve already started motivating children. The Cosmopolitan School of Mira Road and its staff members are committed to conserve water. Its 1000+ students are my angels who are carrying forward the message to save water by undertaking campaigns and putting up Drop Dead posters in their buildings.

What are the most important insights or lessons that you can share from your experience in Drop Dead and your work in water?

By working to save every drop, the pure love you get from door to door is indescribable. People are waiting to see an angel and to them, you are one.

The Water Champions series was developed to showcase individual leadership and initiative in implementing water sector reforms and good practices in Asia and the Pacific. The champions, representing ADB’s developing member countries, are directly involved in improving the water situation in their respective countries or communities. The series is regularly featured in ADB’s Water for All News, which covers water sector developments in the Asia and Pacific region.

The Fern Hotels and resorts

Hello Mr. Surti,

It was a pleasure talking with you this evening. Thank you for your inspirational work on saving water in Mira Road with your NGO ‘Drop Dead’.

We have made supporting the environment our philosophy at The Fern, a national network of hotels & resorts. A brief profile of us & our work is attached.

We would like to invite you to speak with our guests & staff at our Powai hotel on the occasion of World Water Day, Friday, March 22. In addition, we would like to explore the possibility of continuing your work nationwide where we are present.

Please give me a day’s time to discuss the details internally. In the meantime, we would like to invite you to a meal at our Ahmedabad hotel, The Fern.

 

Regards,

Alan D’Mello
Brand Director

21st Mar 2013

The Time is Running Out

Water Champion

Dear Aabid,

We have published the Water Champion article. You can access the page directly here:
http://www.adb.org/features/aabid-surti-fixing-mumbais-leaks-one-tap-time?ref=sectors/water/features

It also appears in the May issue of ADB’s Water for All News:
http://hosted.comm100.com/KnowledgeBase/Issue-55–India–Will-to-Water-(May-2013)_A299.aspx?id=299&siteid=88094

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Best  regards,

Cezar R. Tigno

May 2013
Web Writer, Website Manager
Water for All Website
Asian Development Bank
Tel No.: +632 6324444 Local 70189
www.adb.org/water

 

The next generation will have no choice but to fight for every bucket of water.

The Time is Running Out…

Save Every Drop… or Drop Dead

Return To India: r2iclubforums.com is a well known portal that offers information and services to Non Resident Indians worldwide with a focus on returning to India and settling down comfortably. The forum provides a platform for Indians worldwide to interact and communicate on wide range of topics…

Save Every Drop… or Drop Dead

As a distinguished Indian painter and author, Aabid Surti has written around 80 books but no story so moved him as the truth about water scarcity on the planet. “I read an interview of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros Ghali,” he recalls, “who said that by 2025 more than 40 countries are expected to experience water crisis. I remembered my childhood in a ghetto fighting for each bucket of water. I knew that shortage of water is the end of civilized life.”

A few days later, he came across a statistic in the newspaper: a tap that drips once every second wastes a thousand litres of water in a month. That triggered an idea. He would take a plumber from door to door and fix taps for free – one apartment complex every weekend.

He began by simply replacing old O-ring rubber gaskets with new ones, buying new fixtures from the wholesale market. He named his one-man NGO ‘Drop Dead’ and created a tagline: Save Every Drop… or Drop Dead.

Every Sunday, the Drop Dead team – which consisted of Aabid himself, Riyaaz the plumber and a female volunteer Tejal – picked the apartment blocks, got permission from the housing societies, and got to work.

By the end of the first year, they had visited 1533 homes and fixed around 400 taps. Slowly, the news began to spread.

It’s hard to say how much water he has saved with his mission, given that the faucets he fixed could have continued leaking for months, and maybe years, had he not rung the doorbell one Sunday morning. But conservatively, it could be estimated that he has single-handedly saved at least 5.5m litres of water till date.

In the summer of 2013, the state (Maharashtra) where Aabid lives is expecting its worst drought in 40 years. Months in advance, the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan has warned citizens to begin conserving water. While ministers lobby for drought-relief packages worth millions of dollars, Aabid sees his own approach as simple and inexpensive.

As he rings another door-bell on yet another Sunday in Mira Road, seven years into his one-man mission, he says: “Anyone can launch a water conservation project in his or her area. That’s the beauty of this concept. It doesn’t require much funding or even an office. And most importantly, it puts the power back in our own hands.”

Portal : Return to India : 24th Mar 2013