We celebrate World Water Day to make awareness that every water body is sustains our life and therfore make a commitment to protect it. On this Water Day whom else can I talk about other than father George?
Father George Kavukatu is a missionary who makes the dry lands fertile and produces golden fruits from there. Conservation of land and earth is a mission in itself. It is wrong to think that by pouring water into barren lands and making them fertile, is to earn money. Father George, who has himself experienced hunger, knows that the fruits from the land will feed the common people and the poor.
Even when he considers missionary vocation is God’s call, Fr. George realised that there can be a sort of drought traversing the corridors of religious power. He neither fell into that dryness and was not interested in leaving life of many people to such aridity.
Currently operating in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, he was busy digging a well to irrigate a few acres of land given to him by someone. Covid19 Lockdown and financial constraints hampered the work. When I called the other day, he shared this whole story. But the picture he sent to me yesterday literally blew me away. It is a picture sent in happiness with the caption that the well has been cleansed by washing the mud away. A picture of a 70-year-old man cleaning up in a well with the energy of a 17-year-old last week. (I reprimanded him for doing that.) He sent me this picture without knowing that today is World Water Day. He had a history of protecting and chanalising water sources and conserving the earth. One such incident is from Assangaon in Mumbai Maharashtra itself, where a barrage has been built on the arid land and water has been brought to fruition for the tribals. They didn’t have any water for a while and now they know how to make kappa. Hundreds of people liked this protect the water on earth.
Although land conservation is a priority, Achan is not a hero in the corporate model infusing his knowledge into acres of land. Achan also knows that water conservation is not something to be broadcasted on Facebook while sitting in the comfort of an AC room. It requires you to put your feet on the ground and water. How beautiful will be the feet of that missionary who announced the gospel to the earth. As such, land conservation is only a part of Achan’s activities. There are so many more lives that Achan saves! I will write about it in onother post.
