India is known for being an arid country because of its lack of rain. Many villages struggle because they don’t have water at their disposal all the time. Laungi Bhuiyan, who is also known as Madman, built a canal to bring water to a dry Indian village.  He is known as the madman because his dream was to bring water to the village when everyone said it was impossible. Even though everyone thought he was “mad,” he kept with his dream.

30 years ago, Bhuiyan focused on building a canal so that his own village could have water to drink and to use to grow crops. He started this project by using a hammer and chisel to build a road near the village Gehlaur through a mountain. He then set off to build a canal to the nearest source of water by hand. According to aljazeera.com, the canal is approximately four feet wide and three feet deep. 

According to goodnewsnetwork.org, the canal took 30 plus years to build, and now everyone in the village has access to water. All the villagers are gaining a lot from the canal because they have the ability to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The villagers would usually get on their cattle and travel to the nearest source of water, but because of “Madman,” the villagers are able to have fresh water anytime. 

Even the best deeds can sometimes have consequences. Bhuiyan devoted so much of his time to building the canal to the point where he was seemingly more focused on the canal than he was on his kids. His wife refused to give him food and even called him mad because of the lack of attention he showed towards his kids, reports goodnewsnetwork.org.

Bhuiyan quickly became a local hero because of his effort towards the canal and how he was devoted to helping the dry village by bringing water to them. He was even given a brand new Mahindra tractor that will be used for expanding the canal to eventually increase the size.