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Creating An Impact, One Drop At A Time

Aabid Surti from Mira Road started 'Drop Dead Foundation' to ensure that water is conserved and has fixed over thousands of taps for free.

Creating An Impact, One Drop At A Time
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Aabid Surti, an 84-year old man is a cartoonist, painter, author, journalist, playwright and best known as the ‘Water Warrior’ of Mumbai, started out by going door-to-door on Sunday afternoons accompanied by a plumber. He used to ask people if they have any running taps at home at if they said yes, he used to fix it along with the plumber.

It all started in 2007 when Surti read a report in the newspaper which said that if one tap is kept running, it can cause a loss of thousands of litres per month. Growing up on Mumbai streets and watching people fight over water regularly, the thought of water being wasted in such large quantities disturbed him. It has been 12 years since then and Aabid Surti has embarked on this journey of water conservation. 


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But for him, life was anything but easy. In the initial days, if a woman was alone in her house, she used to be reluctant to let two men in and therefore Aabid started having a woman volunteer as well. He even faced financial problems but won several cash prizes for his contribution to literature and Maharashtra government also helped him with ₹50,000. He had also participated in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) to raise awareness about water conservation and Amitabh Bachan had given him ₹11 lakh. 

He named his initiative as Drop Dead Foundation and his websites tagline reads- Save Every Drop or Drop Dead. With something as simple as fixing running faucets, Aabid has successfully saved up to millions of litres in 12 years and wishes that the future generation understands the importance of water and tries to save it at least in their own homes. With these small measures, we can make a huge difference One drop at a time.

You can check out the exclusive interview of Aabid Surti with Mumbai Live in Marathi at - Aabid Surti Interview.

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