A raddi good reason to stack up

This weekend, these blokes will give theiru00a0 day jobs a breather. Instead, they will drop by 50 corporate houses to collect used newspapers and raise money to fix leaky taps in Mumbai's slums

Did you know that a single leaking tap wastes about 700 litres of water in three hours? It's a statistic that members of Soch (Social Organisation for Conservation of Habitat), have discovered after getting down and dirty with leaking taps in Malad's Ganesh Nagar slum. Appalled by such a needless waste of resources, the seven eco warriors decided to take it on themselves to fix leaking taps across the city. And how do they plan to do carry on this mission? With the money made from the sale of your raddi (used newspapers).


Raddi to the rescueCore members from Soch outside an apartment,
after collecting stacks of newspapers. PIC/NIMESH DAVE

You may have already spotted them -- hauling stacks of used newspapers from corporate offices across the city in trucks over the past two days -- and if you haven't, they might just drop by your home or establishment, if you live in Lokhandwala in Andheri, Saki Naka, Bandra, Khar, Malad, or Kandivali, Borivali tomorrow.
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"We've always wanted to do something for the environment, and in our individual capacity, we do our bit by collecting trash in a bag until we can find a dustbin, not throwing empty bottles on to the road, and so on", says member Karmik Varma, pointing to a plastic bag with assorted wrappers and paper in his car, waiting to be thrown out at the first sight of a dustbin. "Obviously, that's not enough," he continues.

That's when the group of friends decided to think bigger. "We decided to take action and give voice to our thoughts," says Suresh Danwani, whose day job as the entrepreneur of a rainwater harvesting company helped him come up with this idea. "We visited a few chawls and slums across Mumbai, and realised that 20-30 people share the water that comes from one tap for about three hours everyday. Imagine what a difference it would make if those 700 litres could be saved and utilised."

That's how Soch decided to ask for your raddi. "Every household gets at least one daily newspaper, and every office gets about eight newspapers in the morning. So we decided to approach building societies and corporates and ask them to donate their newspaper to us," explains Dinesh Tilwani, a core group member. The plan is to sell the newspaper collected to a vendor who will recycle it for newspaper organisations to reuse, and utilise the money to fix the taps.

So far, the response has been fantastic. They hope to surpass their goal of 5,000 kgs (they've already collected 3,000 kgs in two days) and generate funds worth about Rs 40,000. "With plumbing charges, the cost of replacing a regular Seiko tap is about Rs 500," says Sunil Dubey. The ambitious plan, then, is to replace 1,000 such leaking taps across the city, by December. "We know it's a tough ask and we have a long way to go. But we're going to try. After all, someone needs to step up and take the initiative," concludes Danwani.

To volunteer with Soch and for more information about this and forthcoming projects, email sochmumbai@gmail.com, or visit their Facebook page.