Satsang Jal Seva Sangatan: Securing Water for the Future

At the heart of The Satsang Foundation's (TSF) mission lies an integrated, holistic approach to environmental stewardship. True ecological restoration and future water security require a harmonious blend of rural water harvesting, urban afforestation, and grassroots community awareness. By reviving parched lands, restoring ancient water bodies, and planting urban mini-forests, we are healing ecosystems while empowering the communities that depend on them.

Reviving Rural Water Security: From Thane to Kolhapur

In remote, hilly Devalwadi (Shahapur taluka, Thane district), severe water scarcity has long been a daily ordeal for the village's roughly 50 tribal and Adivasi families. Women were walking 3 km one way to fetch water, often surviving on a single pot per family per day. To address this, TSF built a source well measuring 22 feet in diameter and 24 feet in depth, with a storage capacity of 250,000 litres. This ensures reliable drinking and domestic water, while its depth significantly recharges the deep aquifer — enough that villagers have since restored a long-obsolete hand pump.

Meanwhile, in the rain shadow region of Shirol Taluka, Kolhapur District, the historic town of Sainik Takli is home to an ancient lake that had never been cleaned since its inception, and was choked with silt to ground level, at risk of permanent loss to urbanization. Through targeted desilting, TSF revived this resource, increasing its storage capacity and reviving dormant natural springs.

Large-Scale Desilting: Healing Lakes and Streams in Maharashtra

Working alongside the Indivish Welfare Foundation in Mumbai, TSF tackled two major desilting projects. At Lake Bhadane in Murbad taluka, dense clay soil (chikan mati) had severely constricted storage capacity. Navigating slippery slopes with specialized machinery, the team removed 3,500 cubic meters of silt, creating 35 lakh litres of new storage that directly supports 15–20 farmers and local animal husbandry.

Along the Anjandoh Stream in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, silt build-up had left the waterway dangerously shallow, causing monsoon floods that damaged Kharif crops. Clearing 2 kilometers of the stream removed 17,000 cubic meters of silt, conserving 1.8 crore litres of water. This has boosted well and tube-well recharge, protected 75 acres from flooding, secured second-cropping for 30-35 farmers, and helped curb distress migration in the region.

Planting Seeds of Change: Education and Youth Empowerment

Ecological sustainability takes root when young minds and educators embrace it as a way of life. On 22 August 2026, 126 students at Nalanda Public School, Mulund, took part in a Jal Seva workshop on everyday water-saving habits, concluding with a collective pledge to protect our rivers and water bodies.

At Morarji Desai Residential School, Melukote, on 13 June 2026, TSF's Bengaluru volunteers led an awareness session for the Principal, 10 teachers, and 85 children, covering tree-connection practices (MyTree/Maitri), waste segregation (My Bhoomi), and water conservation (Satsang Jal Seva Sangatan). The session closed with oaths for environment conservation.

To multiply this reach, TSF partnered with the One Billion Lives Foundation (OBLF) for a “Train the Trainers” program on 30 May 2026 in Electronic City, Bengaluru, where 16 TSF volunteers ran three concurrent sessions equipping 80 government-school teachers with modules on tree plantation, waste management, and water security, knowledge they now carry to their own classrooms backed by planned school-level projects and rewards for student participation.

Nurturing Urban Forests and Groundwater Recharge

At the H N Science Center, Gauribidanur (Hoskote), TSF completed a pilot project pairing 1,800 native saplings (planted on 24 April 2026) with two percolation wells (5 ft diameter, 12 ft depth, completed on 8 May 2026), each contributing an estimated 40,000-50,000 litres of yearly groundwater recharge.

A similar initiative at the Primary Health Centre (PHC), Anekal Taluk, saw 400 native saplings planted on 5 September 2026 as a high-density Urban Dense Forest, alongside two more percolation wells under construction, expected for completion by 10 September. These efforts were made possible through the generous support of the PHC, OBLF, BakerTilly One India (which sponsored the percolation wells) and TSF members, who funded the plantation drive.

Join Hands with Us for a Greener Tomorrow

The journey of ecological restoration and securing water for vulnerable communities relies on collective action. We warmly invite you to participate actively in our mission, whether through corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships or direct contributions to our environment campaigns.

For CSR Support & Inquiries: Write to us at connect@satsang-foundation.org

To Contribute to Environment Campaigns: Please click https://app.satsang-foundation.org/donate/initiate