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John Keells clean contaminated wells in flood hit areas

More than 262 drinking water wells contaminated during the worst ever floods in the Matara, Galle and Ratnapura districts have been cleaned and handed back to the villagers under a programme initiated by John Keells group of Companies recently.

A company spokesman said "following the disastrous floods we got in to top gear straight away and our Chairman set up a committee to address the issue with an immediate allocation of Rupees three million. The group identified that provision of clean and safe drinking water was critical as almost all the wells in the affected villages were badly contaminated. Often these wells provided the only source of drinking water.

We pumped out the mud and disinfected the water and the people now have safe drinking water. This programme continues and many more villages will benefit from the project in the days to come".

The spokesman said alongside this exercise, a separate group got busy packaging some of the selected items of urgent need identified by the Social Services Department and the Disaster Management Unit and broadcast regularly over the media, calling for public assistance. These items included medicines, cooking utensils, clothes, and other necessary consumables. 1500 of these packages have been distributed so far using Rupees 1.6 million on these two projects up to now".

The group has successfully mustered the support of a broad network of their business contacts in these areas in the plantations, hotels and the distribution network of its food sector involving Elephant Soft Drinks and Keells foods.

A third team of persons in the committee are at present gathering information as to the specific requirements of building material to restore shelter to the poorest families affected. Implementation of this phase of the project will get under way within the next week. "The support we have had from the local authorities and places of worship in these areas to carry out our programmes is praiseworthy" the spokesman said.

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