Fresh Water for India's Street Dogs [View All]

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/fresh-water-for-indias-street-dogs/

Tens of thousand of stray dogs live on the streets of Mumbai, India. Their lives are at risk everyday from starvation, disease and abuse and now they must deal with another danger - contaminated water.



In Defense of Animals (IDA) reported that the street dogs are now being exposed to "chemical-laden water in the gutters" from "the waste of nearby chemical factories." One day the water is pink, then it turns orange and finally as the chemicals accumulate in the gutters, the color turns black.



"Safe water to drink for stray animals is almost impossible for animals to find on the streets of Mumbai," said IDA-India's founder Sarita Raturi.



Raturi knew she had to come up with a plan to alleviate the problem, so in May 2009 she put into action a program, but it fell short of her goal. She gave away plastic buckets to shop keepers on every street at one end of Mumbai and asked them to keep them filled with water for the dogs. When she came back to check on the program, she was told that all of the buckets had disappeared. But Rutari did not give up on the idea.



"This led to my thinking on how to provide water to animals and I came up with cement bowls to be cemented on the ground itself and to be taken care of by animal lovers/Volunteers in different parts of Mumbai," Raturi said.



With this in mind Sarita Raturi looked for volunteers and stumbled upon Sharmee Bhatt, who she refers to as an "Angel." Together they created the S & S Water Bowls Project.


FULL info at link: http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/fresh-water-for-indias-street-dogs/