It's Bombay (now Mumbai) from the 1940s. A young boy from present-day Gujarat lived with his large family on the footpaths of Mumbai. Every night, he and his father slept on the footpath while the others in his family slept inside a one-room home. Every morning, he witnessed fights for each and every drop of water. Even decades later, he could not forget his childhood struggles with clean water.
Meet Abid Surti, the world-renowned writer, painter & cartoonist, who established the Drop Dead Foundation in 2007 to conserve water. "The childhood trauma of lacking clean water made me hyper-sensitive to any leakage of water," said the 90-year-old Surti.
He recollected his earliest battle to save water: "I was at a friend's home many years ago. While we were sitting in the living room, I could hear drops of water leaking from a tap. I told my friend about this, but he casually dismissed the matter.” This incident, Surti said, strengthened his resolve to stop water wastage and sowed the seed of Drop Dead Foundation.
After a successful career, during which he created the popular comic characters ‘Dabbuji’ & ‘Bahadur’, Surti decided to dedicate his life to fixing one leaking tap at a time. "I made a rough calculation of the monthly expenses, which came to about Rs 5,000 per month. Then, I decided to take the plunge," he said. The monthly expense, he said, included the plumber fee and the cost of repairing taps.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Surti & his plumber fixed at least 400 water leakages every year in Mumbai. "To convince society members, we shared our pamphlets, which provided details of our work and mission," he said. Once the approvals were in place, Surti and his team went about fixing leakages on Sunday. All free of charge. The plumber used to be paid Rs 500 per week for his services.
His initiative received a tremendous response. He and his team used to tell society members that a thousand liters of water going down the drain every month is equal to wasting a thousand one-liter water bottles. Thanks to his decade-long efforts, Surti is credited with successfully saving at least 30 million liters of water in Mumbai.
In 2017, 10 years after launching Drop Dead Foundation, Surti decided to register his organization. "For several years, many well-wishers wanted to monetarily contribute to my initiative. So, they convinced me to register my foundation," he said. Surti, who leads a Spartan life, said that luck has always been on his side. "In 2007, the Uttar Pradesh government awarded me the Hindi Sahitya Sanstha Award. The prize money of Rs 1 lakh helped in funding the foundation."
He was once invited to Kaun Banega Crorepati, which is hosted by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The veteran actor presented Surti with a cheque of ₹15 lakh. "It was too large an amount. I didn't know what to do with it. However, he insisted that I use it to do even more for saving water," Surti said. "If your intentions are noble, then you don't need to beg for funds. God will work in mysterious ways to help you," he added.
Surti's life took an unexpected turn amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Suddenly, he could no longer visit homes. But he remained undeterred. He pivoted from residences to public establishments, such as police stations and public toilets, across the city.
Surti also made full use of his creative skills to spread the message of water conservation. He began creating posters with messages from various religions, emphasizing the importance of conserving water. "Indians are deeply religious. So, I decided to use noble teachings from every religion to drive my point,” he said. For instance, Surti designed posters with a photo of Lord Ganesha and a quote, “Arey balak jab paani nahi hoga to mera visarjan kaha karoge?”
The initiative became an instant hit, with people from all walks of life – from policemen to even foreigners – asking him for these posters. Thanks to his creative posters, the nonagenarian feels his 'save water' mission has become a global movement.
Surti said his posters have had a visible impact on how people conserve water. "Mosques have a wazookhana, where people perform ablution. At one wazookhana, I saw a lot of water wasted. I pasted a poster with words from Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). It had a big impact as the water wastage reduced considerably." Surti is not done yet. He is a man brimming with ideas. Even before he began creating posters, Surti wanted to turn water conservation into a mass movement. In 2017, he organized a traditional rain dance at Churchgate railway station to spread his message.
“Water conservation is my lifelong pursuit. It will continue till my last breath,” said Surti, who is also known as the one-man NGO. He also has a message for the readers of DARPAN: “Save every drop of water before you drop dead.”
