In places like the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, monsoons fail regularly, and villagers have no proper access to water for most of the year. Crops have failed frequently and even the women face extreme hardships—often having to walk for miles—to get to clean water.

In such grim situations, people come together to help each other in any way they can. In the village of Pipariya, Cat® dealers worked with the locals to come up with a unique solution to the water problem. While Cat machines are scheduled to work on several projects that will help improve the access to water, the 424B decided to get an early start.

The people of Pipariya lack the resources needed to build a water storage system. There was a great opportunity to help by digging a pond in the village. A task such as this required the teamwork of many. The Village Head—or Sarpanch—also a Cat customer, donated the land for the water storage system. Local Cat dealers helped by mobilizing the workforce, acquiring the necessary permissions, as well as advising on the most effective way to accomplish the mammoth job.

Watch how the locals come together to build a pond with the 424B. Thanks to the Sarpanch’s generous gesture, and with the backhoe’s help, villagers were able to convert a barren patch of land into a reservoir. In fact, the 424B, with its 205-degree bucket rotation and heavy-duty boom and stick, is built to take on tasks in any terrain, no matter how harsh. After the job was complete, the locals came together to plant trees around the pond—turning the parched land into an oasis.