Fresh water supply for kidney-disease areas

Nimal Wijesinghe - Anuradhapura Additional District group cor

A bowser-based fresh drinking water supply project is now in progress in the Anuradhapura District for the purpose of providing pure water to a number of difficult villages suffering from kidney diseases and an acute shortage of potable water. This program has been launched comprehensively under the 2012 Deyata Kirula Anuradhapura District overall development venture.

As a further step towards the expansion of the project, arrangements have been initiated to provide drinking water facilities through bowsers to the Sandamal Eliya village located in the Mahawilachchiya Divisional Secretariat division in the Anuradhapura District.

The special feature of this scheme was that a group of senior citizens, who are professionals, headed by Shantha Fernando, a retired Additional General Manager of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board financially contributed to the one million rupee project. These citizens had been in the Engineering Faculty of the Moratuwa University during the 1969-1974 period.

There are nearly 80 families residing in the Sandamal Eliya village and twenty 1000 litre water storage tanks have been installed in the village premises on the basis of one such tank for four families. In addition, each family is provided with two 10 litre cans to store their water, on the basis of 20 litres being issued daily for only drinking and cooking purposes.

"This bowser based water supply project was inaugurated at the Billewa remote village. At present Billewa, Thambiyawa, Nelumwila and now Sandamal Eliya villages receive this provision. The two-fold purpose of the project is aimed at the prevention of the rapidly spreading kidney disease in the area, and also to provide potable drinking water to villagers suffering from acute shortage of water, since these areas lack suitable ground water resources to be used to install permanent water supply schemes. Now we have installed nearly 500 water storage tanks in these villages and our 60 fleet of bowsers transport adequate water to keep the tanks filled," Deputy General Manager of the NWS&DB (NCP) L.L.A. Peris told the Daily News.

The NWS&DB has planned to expand the water supply facility to areas where kidney diseases have been spreading such as Mahawilachchiya, Medawachchiya, Padaviya and Kebithigollewa. Public organizations and philanthropists could offer a helping hand to the NWS&DB in the implementation of the bowser based drinking water supply program, Deputy General Manager Peiris stated.