Mumbai, Jul 12 (IANS): Nine leading crusaders working in the field of water conservation were honoured at the day-long Rin Lokmat Water Summit 2017, an official said here on Wednesday.
Vijay Kumar Honmute and Ankush Padwale, both hailing from Solapur, were among those honoured at the event on Tuesday.
Honmute launched a water saving initiative with public participation, and Padwale made valuable efforts towards water conservation.
Also honoured were Rahul Jivani for his contribution in water conservation in Yavatmal, 'Jaldoot' Anil Chougule who has launched a campaign for 'Avoid Water Wastage, Reuse Water, Use Water Wisely', and Hemant Patil of Jalgaon who invested his own money to save 15 crore litres of water.
Priyadarshan Bhatewara, who harvests more than one lakh litres of water every monsoon in Nashik and built a water pond in Ahmednagar, Suresh Kharawan for his water conservation works in Washim, Dyandev Pachpute for water harvesting in 100 homes in Kolhapur, and Suresh Patil who cleared silt from Khadakwasla dam in Pune doubling its capacity, were among the other prominent crusaders honoured at the event.
The summit was organised by Lokmat Group of newspapers along with Rin, a well-known detergent brand, and culminated in a water conservation movement called 'Jalsamruddh Maharashtra'.
Prominent personalities including Rajendra Singh -- the Water Man of India, Lokmat Media Editor-in-Chief Rajendra Darda, Maharashtra Ministers Girish Mahajan, Ram Shinde and Babanrao Lonikar, and Hindustan Unilever Ltd CEO Sanjiv Mehta spoke at the summit.
The summit had three major sessions to discuss in-depth "Maharashtra's Innovative Approaches to Water Management and Conservation", "Clean and Safe Drinking Water: A Must for a Healthy Population" and "Finding Practical Solutions to Meet the Water Challenges", a spokesperson said.
The summit, intended to create mass awareness of conserving the valuable water resources in the state, was supported by the Maharashtra government's Water Resources Department and Knowledge Partner H2Life.