South West Monsoon brings us plenty of water every year. And the hills of Caurem, with a green forest cover and leeward side topographic relief coupled with rock formation that facilitate water table higher than the ground level is the God's gift to the villagers of Caurem and Goa. The water from this water table is the purest and it comes down through the capillaries in the ground, join together to become springs and in the process getting enriched by various ingredients that contain all that is required for human beings to flourish.
You could see many springs in the area ten-twenty years ago even during the peak summer. But the greed of few people is destroying the lands, the mountains, the forests, the acquifers and resultantly the springs. Normal purified bottled water sells at Rs 15 per bottle. The abundant water from these springs will certainly fetch a premium. A co-operative of villagers can set up a project to bottle this water on lines of Amul. This is a sustainable project, because water is renewable unlike iron ore, which is limited. While forests, top soil, acquifers and water table are destroyed by mining, bottling activity will enhance these resources. The villagers will benefit immensely by way of employment and dividends from the profits of the co-operative. The Government of Goa will also receive higher net revenue than what is provided by the mining royalty. Truck owners also will get higher rates for transporting water bottles, as the commodity is priced twice of iron ore. Such an envionment friendly and renewable resource sustainable projects can achieve financial closures more expeditiously, thanks to the impetus given by the World Bank and other multilateral financial Institutions. Added to this is the Tribal angle of the local populace. RBI's policy related to priority sector lending will also find a dream project to nurture. Many philantophists like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Narayan Murthy of Infosys and Azim Premji of WIPRO are scouting to incubate such projects. Rajendra
