CSR ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY AGT SINCE 2013

Akash Ganga Trust's CSR activities have so far centred heavily around enabling charitable institutions to attain water self-sufficiency. Charitable Institutions in urban areas are too dependent on their captive sources such as the groundwater due to not-so-good Municipal supply, particularly during summer months. This has resulted in groundwater depletion and in turn makes rainwater harvesting (RWH), in the form of aquifer recharge, more relevant in these institutions in particular and in urban areas in general.Several charitable institutions find it difficult to meet the expenses likely to be incurred in implementing RWH within their premises.Examples of such charitable institutions are orphanages, home for the aged, homes for destitute women, home for the physically and mentally disabled children, men and women, hospitals etc. These could belong to different religions, castes and communities. These organizations require large quantities of fresh water both for potable and non-potable uses for the inmates and therefore it is very important for them to sustain whatever ground water sources they have. Since their priorities are different, water management is not given the importance that it richly deserves. In addition to the above mentioned institutions, aided schools and colleges also should be included for support.

Some of them are even located in large campuses in the city and any RWH done within their premises is bound to sustain and improve the groundwater source in not only within their premises but also in the immediate neighbourhood. Secondly, these charitable organizations are unable to afford the financial outlays needed for the installation of such RWH systems, since most of the donation money they receive from volunteer individuals and corporates goes towards fulfilling their primary service objectives, leaving them with little to invest towards their own future water security. Our Trust always had this dream/objective of helping such Charitable and aided Institutions by implementing RWH in them. This dream/objective could be achieved when M/s Asian Paints Ltd , a corporate approached us in December 2013 to help them spend their CSR funds in water-related projects and wanted us to suggest a couple of deserving institutions to start with wherein RWH could be implemented with CSR funds from the corporate.

The first two projects were Shri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore and Cancer Institute, Adyar. Suitable RWH system was designed and executed during financial year 2013-2014. Since then M/s Asian Paints Ltd has continued to be our CSR partner till date and we have together implemented RWH in thirty different Institutions located in forty one premises. Of these, four were educational institutions for mentally & physically disabled children, three were homes for students from the economically weaker sections, five were charitable hospitals, two were charitable institutions, sixteen were aided schools, seven were aided colleges, three were aided educational institutions and one revival of a traditional waterbody in a village.

Since 2014-15, M/s Computer Age Management Services Pvt. Ltd. (CAMS) has supported RWH implementation projects in seven premises of Charitable Institutions with their CSR funds. Of these, four are aided schools, two are Homes for students belonging to economically weaker section and one is a Public Health Centre. M/s Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. has been supporting RWH implementation projects for the past two years from their CSR funds. Six Institutions have been benefited because of this. Of these, three are aided schools and the rest are a Hospital, an aided college and a fishing Hamlet. During 2019-20 M/s Titan Company Ltd. supported RWH implementation in four Institutions, of which two were charitable hospitals, one aided school and one charitable Institution.

In addition to all this, our trust has carried out two projects for Rotary clubs and one for WABAG, another corporate.

The complete list of projects carried out by AGT is given below.