Australian help for CKDu-stricken areas in Sri Lanka
View(s):In response to the outbreak of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKDu), which has claimed many lives in the villages in the North Central Province and in particular in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts, the Lions Club in Moorooka, Queensland, Australia, have joined hands with the Lions Club of Borella to launch a project to provide purified water to villages in some of the affected areas.
The Moorooka Lions Club raised over AUD 25,000 which was supplemented by an endowment of a further AUD 25,000 from the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).
This funding was utilized to install two 10,000 Litres Per Day (LPD) Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in Kapugollawa and Gonameruwewa in the Anuradhapura District.
Both villages were identified by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board. The two plants were vested in the ownership of the Community Based Organizations (CBO), in the presence of Warren Loose, President Designate of Moorooka Lions Club who was the Lion behind this service initiative.
District Governor of Lions District 306B2, Lion S. K. Ravindran, members of the Lions Club of Borella and well-wishers were also present at this occasion.
Scott Walker, a philanthropist from Brisbane Australia, contributed over Rs. 8 million of private funding to enable the installation of Reverse Osmosis plants in 20 villages.
This project was carried out in the identified locations with the assistance of the Lions Club of Medawachchiya (Kidney Care) and the National Water Supply & Drainage Board.
“I was aware that there was a problem in the North Central Province (NCP) and the Dry Zones of Sri Lanka.When I heard that the Lions Club had launched an appeal, I made a contribution.
As I have an ongoing interest in Sri Lanka, I was very concerned about the plight of the villagers in the NCP and decided to personally arrange for Reverse Osmosis plants to be installed in 20 villages.
Mr. William Deutrom and Mr. Jayaseelan assisted me in identifying the villages and also ensured that the installation was completed.
After my visit and seeing the response from the villagers I have decided to provide a further 20 villages with purified water in the New Year,” Mr. Walker said.
The Chairman of the Federation of Sri Lankan Organisations in Queensland, William Deutrom, who has been closely associated with the project, speaking about his experience and commitment to the CKDu clean water programme said, “CKDu was identified as a serious issue in Sri Lanka and this encouraged us to visit the affected parts of the country to identify villages that required assistance.
In order to utilize funds provided by Australian donors we talked to a number of providers of RO equipment and selected ABC Trade and Investments as a partner based on their experience, their presence in the affected areas as well as their commitment to providing clean water to the villages.
The involvement of the Australian community through Mr. Scott Walker and the Lions Club of Moorooka is very encouraging and we hope it would lead to more funding from the Australian people and Government as well.”
“The Australian Government has been a generous contributor to Sri Lanka at the time of the Tsunami and, as the CKDu problem is similar in scale, a positive response from the Government and people of Australia would be most welcome,” he added.
ABC Trade and Investment (Pvt) Ltd., one of Sri Lanka’s leading diversified business conglomerates with interest in ICT, healthcare and water purification solutions was selected as the official system supplier to this project.
ABC T&I, as Official Distributor of PURE AQUA USA and EMTEC, installed Pure Aqua RO systems at the Lions project, while supplying EMTEC RO systems of capacities ranging from 2,000 litres to 5,000 litres to the 20 villages based on the village population density.