Some Pani Puri for Thought

The Rural Drinking Water Network Enterprise (RDWNE), in recognition of World Water Week, hosted an in-house PANI Puri Eating Contest to promote awareness about the world water crisis. World Health Organization standards call for 2-3 litres of drinking water per capita per day. However, in many developing nations, India included, families struggle to get any type of water, safe or not.

Pani Puri Contest Participants

Participants struggled to eat as many puris as possible in two minutes, one minute, or 30 seconds, with the winner of each round receiving bragging rights and a stomach full (perhaps too full) of pani puri. The winners were Jai Mohan, Gaurav, Vipin, Ajay Bordia, Raghav N, Amit Sharda and PeterBremberg.

Bravehearts rather Brave-stomachs – Contest winners

Meanwhile, videos depicting the world crisis and the crisis in India were screened. One video spotlighted a WaterHealth India treatment plant – a company the RDWNE partnered with two years ago to fund 220 plants across Andhra Pradesh.

Driving home the point

Participants were also asked to name places they had visited that did not have access to safe water. The list included places from Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan – illustrating the scope of the problem in India.

The RDWNE is working to make sure this list isn’t quite so long by the time the 2nd annual PANI Puri Eating Contest comes around.

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Neha Bazaj from the RDWNE team and Merlin Mathews from the Human Capital team contributed to this post.