Come every summer, and people of a village in Erattupetta, Kerala fondly remember a noble man who dedicated a well at his home for the public, ensuring access to drinking water. For the last 33 years, this well has been the lifeline for the families at Mullupara, which reels under severe water crisis during summer. Now around 200 families of Mullpara depend on this well for drinking water during summer.
It was in 1991 that Mankuzhackal Haji Muhammed Ali bought three acres of land with a well on it for constructing a house for himself. As the well was not in good shape, he cleaned and started using it. Soon, he realised that his well never went dry even during peak summer while other wells in the same locality dried up. When people, reeling under severe water crisis, approached him seeking permission to fetch water from his well, he readily agreed.
Realising he should do something legally to ensure that the well remained open for public access, he demarcated 1.5 cents of land on which the well was situated and donated it to the public before his death 25 years ago.
“Initially, there were only two or three pumps to collect water from the well. But now there are over 80 pump sets fetching water from the well and supplying to over 200 families in Mullupara,” said Muhammed Yusaf Maulvi, 54, the seventh son of the late Haji Muhammed Ali.
Yusaf said he was very proud of his father, who has left behind a great legacy of compassion. “My father’s decision to donate the well is still touching the lives of hundreds of people in the village. I am proud of it,” Yusaf told “Open Digest.”
The villagers have renovated the well by constructing a protection wall and also a separate floor to place the pump sets. “The well is about 20 to 25 feet deep. It gets filled with water within ten minutes of it getting empty,” he said.
As access to clean drinking water has become a formidable challenge for many rural communities due to soaring temperatures and dwindling water sources, the late Haji Muhammed Ali’s gesture of donating his well to the public stands as a testimony of humanity.
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