Jeram Thesia, the 64-year-old businessman from Ingorala village in Amreli district of Surat, Gujarat, is doing the unthinkable. He is spending Rs. 150 million from his own pocket to deepen the 10 kms stretch of Thebi water resource to rejuvenate his birthplace, reports gulfnews.com.

Thesiasays: “Four months ago, the water resource was just 2-feet deep and 70 feet wide. I am working towards deepening and widening it and stretching it to over 10 kms, which in the times to come will be brimming with rain water.”

Once the project gets completed, the small river will become a lifeline for thousands of water-starved farmers. Scores of villages in the stretch on both sides of the river will benefit, as underground tables will rise and automatically the wells that are drying up, will get recharged.

Thesia, a diamond merchant, oversees and manages all work by himself. With a battery of workers carrying out operations round-the-clock, the clatter of three earth-moving machines and an equal amount of dumpers are heard throughout the day and night in this remote village.

"I come from a poor family that did farming for a living. Having seen hardships during childhood, as we were a 42-members joint family, I had known the difficulties of survival in rain-fed farming. This forced us to migrate from Ingorala village in Amreli district to Surat when I was 16. With sheer hard work and dedication I made it big and when the time came to give it back to society, I decided to bequeath all my earnings in some form",– he said.

bbabo.Net