Critics of some aid programs contend that merely supplying money
and resources to destitute regions does not help them in the
long term, and can even hurt, because it creates dependence on
the part of the recipients. Not so with Dr. BP Agrawal’s
solutions for bringing clean water and medical services to rural
Indian villages, which won him and his program the $100,000
Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability, the organization
announced on Wednesday morning. His “River From The Sky” (Aakash
Ganga) initiative continues to enable villagers to trap rain
water on their rooftops and store it underground via pipes,
providing an average of 10-12 liters of water per day to each
resident of 40 villages, reaching approximately 10,000 villagers
so far. The system also creates an economic incentive for
villagers to sustain the program, not only by providing water,
but by allowing them to rent out their rooftops to those with
increased demand for water in order to generate income. Excess
water is routed to a community tank th