Honoured & Sealed – Most Outstanding Community Service Initiatives – Water and Sanitation

The availability of an efficient water supply mechanism and improved sanitation services is a vital factor to be considered in sustaining the pace of development of a country. According to the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking water (GLAAS UN-Water), Sri Lanka holds a sanitation coverage of 92% and a 94% of drinking water coverage. Nevertheless, the need for improvement in the areas such as rural schools’ sanitation, sanitation facilities for disabled and the problem of ground water contamination, remains to be a critical concern of the community. In addition to the initiatives and targets implemented by the government in rectifying the issues related to water and sanitation, some of our fellow Rotaract clubs have united their efforts to contribute towards improving this sector. Here, we have a brief summary on few of those initiatives that were acknowledged at the 30^th  Rotaract District Assembly under the category of ‘Water and Sanitation’.

කාර්යක්ෂම ජල සැපයුම් යාන්ත්‍රණයක් සහ වැඩිදියුණු කළ සනීපාරක්ෂක සේවා පැවතීම රටක සංවර්ධනයේ මට්ටම සලකා බැලීමේදී ඉතා වැදගත් සාධකයකි. සනීපාරක්ෂක හා පානීය ජලය පිළිබඳ ගෝලීය විශ්ලේෂණය සහ තක්සේරුව (GLAAS UN-Water) අනුව, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 92%ක සනීපාරක්ෂක ආවරණයක් සහ 94%ක පානීය ජල ආවරණයක්  සපයනු ලබයි. එසේ වුවද, ග්‍රාමීය පාසල්වල සනීපාරක්ෂාව, ආබාධිතයින් සඳහා සනීපාරක්ෂක පහසුකම් සහ භූගත ජලය දූෂණය වීමේ ගැටලුව වැනි ක්ෂේත්‍රවල වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව තදින්ම පවතියි. ජලය සහ සනීපාරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධ ගැටළු  විසදීම සඳහා රජය විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලද මුලපිරීම් සහ ඉලක්ක වලට අමතරව, අපගේ සෙසු රොටරැක්ට් සමාජයන් ද මෙම අංශය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමට ඔවුන්ගේ දායකත්වය ලබා දී ඇත. 30 වන දිස්ත්‍රික් සමුළුවේදී ‘ජලය සහ සනීපාරක්ෂාව’ යන කාණ්ඩය යටතේ පිළිගත් එම වැඩසටහන් කිහිපයක් පිළිබඳ කෙටි සාරාංශයක් මෙහි ඇත.

திறமையான நீர் வழங்கல் பொறிமுறை மற்றும் மேம்பட்ட துப்புரவு சேவைகள் கிடைப்பது ஒரு நாட்டின் வளர்ச்சி வேகத்தை நிலைநிறுத்துவதில் பங்களிக்கும் ஒரு முக்கிய காரணி. துப்புரவு மற்றும் குடிநீரின் உலகளாவிய பகுப்பாய்வு மற்றும் மதிப்பீடு படி, இலங்கையில் 92% துப்புரவு பாதுகாப்பு மற்றும் 94% குடிநீர் பாதுகாப்பு உள்ளது. ஆயினும்கூட, கிராமப்புற பள்ளிகளின் சுகாதாரம், ஊனமுற்றோருக்கான துப்புரவு வசதிகள் மற்றும் நிலத்தடி நீர் மாசுபடுதல் போன்ற துறைகளில் முன்னேற்றம் தேவை என்பது சமூகத்தின் முக்கியமான கவலையாக உள்ளது. நீர் மற்றும் சுகாதாரம் தொடர்பான பிரச்சினைகளை சரிசெய்வதில் அரசாங்கத்தால் செயல்படுத்தப்பட்ட முன்முயற்சிகள் மற்றும் இலக்குகளுக்கு மேலதிகமாக, எங்கள் சக றோட்டறக்ட் கழகங்கள் தங்கள் பங்களிப்பையும் ஒன்றிணைத்துள்ளன. 30 வது மாவட்ட சட்டமன்றத்தில் ‘நீர் மற்றும் சுகாதாரம்’ என்ற பிரிவின் கீழ் குறிப்பிடப்பட்ட சில முயற்சிகள் குறித்த சுருக்கம் இங்கே!

Gold – Project Life (RAC Achievers Lanka Business School)

Sri Lanka is one of the main countries that faces chronic kidney diseases caused by harmful chemicals discharged through farming and paddy cultivation which contaminates the waterways used by people for daily household consumption. A significant amount of nearly 22000 deaths have been recorded since 1991 due to chronic kidney diseases in Anuradhapura district. To help them fight against the issue, the Rotaract club of Achievers Lanka business school partnered with Lanka rainwater harvesting forum to install rainwater harvesting systems in several places through this initiative. (Reminder: Not all heroes wear capes!❤). Incurring a cost of 600,000 LKR, three tube wells and pumps were constructed which extended its benefits towards 50 families nearby. The opening ceremony was held on the 21^st of May 2020 where the club members joined via video calls due to the island-wide lockdown which was prevailing then. The aim of the project was to provide clean and drinkable water to the people living in rural areas while assuring long term benefits by ensuring the sustainability of the plant’s operation through continuous maintenance.

More information can be found on;
http://rotaractachievers.org/blog/

Silver – A safer Tomorrow (RAC Centennial United)

Cleanliness and proper sanitation in educational institutions is a matter of Extreme Importance, and an access to it is a human right!

Rotaract Club of Centennial United executed the project ‘A safer Tomorrow’, an initiative with the intention of supporting the Nevungala Pradeshiya Sabha Pre School, one of the deprived institutions in delivering its fundamental sanitation and hygiene facilities.

Since its establishment in 1998, educating more than 550 students, there had been no reconditioning of the lavatories during its existence of 22 years. The Rotaract Club of Centennial United highlighted this inconvenience and reconstructed the prevailing lavatory and constructed an additional lavatory utilizing the donations from the public as well as the club members. Also, they reconstructed the handwashing unit, distributed Disinfectant soap that is sufficient for 5 months by collaborating with Ayush and conducted a workshop to educate people on the proper method of washing hands. The opening ceremony was magnificently commenced on the 06^th of June, adhering to all safety precautions.

On an additional note, a tree planting project was also undertaken within the pre-school premises, commemorating the 11^th Charter day of Rotaract Club of Centennial United. Nevertheless, they did not fail to instill the value of securing nature in those little souls. (Note : *Singing* “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world….” )

To know about RAC Centennial United, you can follow them on;
https://www.facebook.com/CentennialUnited/

Bronze – Nambikkai (RAC Mid Town & RAC Hatton Kotagala)

The Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid Town and the Rotaract Club of Hatton Kotagala pooled in their efforts towards an act of humanity through the project “Nambikkai”, where they provided hygienic sanitary facilities to the students of Cleaverton Tamil Vidyalayam, Hatton, a school which currently consists of 150 students and 20 staff members. The clubs found out that the school faced many difficulties due to insufficient sanitary facilities where all of them had to share one common toilet. Students, specially the girls found it challenging to be sharing the toilets with the boys due to the lack of privacy. In order to help them overcome this dreadful situation, RAC Colombo Mid Town and RAC Kotagala stepped forward to build separate toilets for the girls of Cleaverton Tamil Vidyalayam. The entire project costed nearly Rs.50 000 to which both the clubs contributed equally. The construction work for the toilets started in the month of February and was planned to be completed by the end of march. But due to the ongoing pandemic, the project was successfully completed in the month of May after providing the water supply to the toilets and handing them over to the school.

More details can be found on the RAC Mid Town Blog;
https://www.rotaractcolombomidtown.org/

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
                                              – Albert Einstein

This category of awards is certainly an eye opener for all the other clubs as it expands the scope of community services to a greater extent while encouraging the clubs to take up the responsibility to aid and support the underprivileged communities to the best of their abilities. And as we always say, it’s beyond competing for awards! Cheers to the clubs for pulling off such phenomenal initiatives regardless of the challenging situation that was prevailing in the country.

Thank you to all our fellow clubs and fellow Rotaractors for providing us with the details!

Written & Compiled By:

The Blog Team 2020/21