In memory of Dr Costantino Faillace (1925-2012)
By Dr. Shrikant Limaye
(IAPG Vice-President, AGID Past President)
(from AGID's Geoscience Newsletter, 64th Issue - December 2012)
Dr. Costantino (Tino) Faillace, a devoted life-member of AGID and a personal friend of many of the AGID Councilors, passed away peacefully on 14th November 2012, at his home in Casa Bianca near Rome. Tino had an illustrious career as a Hydrogeologist with Italian Government and later with UNDP, GTZ, etc. Starting with Italy and Somalia he worked in several countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia as ground water expert. I met him during the International Geological Congress (1980) in Paris and we became good friends. After retirement, he told me that he wished to help poor tribal people in India.
From 1989 to 2012 Tino was engaged in his "family-funded Project" of providing safe drinking water to tribal people in western India. Over 350 tribal hamlets benefitted from this Project. Helping students with scholarships, giving laboratory equipment or additional class-rooms to schools, helping women by giving them medicines and arranging vocational training for women and girls, were other facets of this project in which his wife Kathe helped him. I was happily sharing a minor role in this project. The Indian Water Works Association (IWWA) invited and honored Tino in many of their Annual Conventions. During the International Geological Congress (2004) in Florence the Organizing Committee felicitated Tino with a special Gold Medal for his philanthropic work. A brief account of his work appeared in my article in "Hydrogeology Journal" (1998, 6:323-324) named "Costantino Faillace: Philanthropic Hydrogeologist". Tino loved India so much that he selected the auspicious day of Deepavali Padva (New Year) for his departure to Heaven. AGID shares the grief with Tino’s family and friends and prays God to bestow peace upon his pious soul. Being a hydrogeologist who always loved to work, I am sure that he would soon be presenting God with a "Report on Ground Water Resources of the Heaven".
