Tomorrow we depart, flying from Denver to Frankfurt to Mumbai to Bhopal, India (10,534 miles in 27 hours). Our mission is to conduct research on the potential for Water For People projects in Madhya Pradesh – the largest state in India.
There is no ITT or Water For People presence In Madhya Pradesh now, so we will be on our own to develop contacts. We prepared a list of potential contacts from internet searches including government offices, NGOs, universities, and companies. After tens of emails and faxes, we have three intriguing leads. UNICEF replied with an official looking letter of interest in our work. One local Indian NGO (AARAMBH) is eager to speak with us. We are hopeful that they will be willing to let us visit some of their water projects in the slums of Bhopal that we have read about. Professor Choudhary (Civil Engineering Department at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal) replied with an interest to meet with our team. He also suggested another collaborator; Professor Chauhan (Environmental Engineering) who is interested in our work. It will be helpful to have a collaborator in the academic community that can help us make appropriate contacts in the government. We have heard this is the way of doing business in India. You rely on one contact making additional introductions for you. Our first attempts at cold calling the university were challenged to understand the rapid fire king’s English spoken with an Indian accent.
One intro fax went out to the Principal Secretary for Water Resources in Madhya Pradesh. Unfortunately last week the Principal Secretary was removed from office for financial irregularities and arrested after lavish jewelry and enormous foreign bank accounts were discovered in tax raids. His wife and father (Police Chief of Madhya Pradesh) were also implicated in the raids. This all was another reminder of the rampant corruption that has stifled attempts to improve living conditions in India.
