Wednesday Oct 02, 2024
Wednesday Oct 02, 2024
Friday, 9 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Present at the event were Minister Dinesh Gunewardena – Minister of Water Supply and Drainage, A. Abeygunasekera – Secretary to Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage, Karunasena Hettiarachchi – Chairman, National Water Supply and Drainage Board, N. Piyarathna Thibbatumunuwa – Working Director, Water Supply and Drainage Board and Nihal Ferdinando – Additional General Manager (Policy and Planning), Water Supply and Drainage Board.
Present from Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd. were Asoka Wickramasinghe – Chairman, Kapila Welmillage – Country Manager and Indika Perera – Country Supply Chain Manager.
This is one of many community development initiatives taken on this year by Coca-Cola as they will provide resources for the construction of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) Treatment Plant and the infrastructure to house this RO Treatment Plant. 
The new plant would purify approximately 1,500L of water per hour and be operational for 20 hours per day. The plant will supply water for drinking and cooking purposes to over 1,100 households in the villages of the Padaviya DS Division including Parakramapura. The facility will be maintained by the community-based organisation in collaboration with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board.
Situated in the northern part of the Anuradhapura District, Padaviya is known to report the highest number of patients diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), a disease that occurs without pre-existing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes; heavy metals in agrochemicals suspected to be the main cause with water contributing significantly to intensify the disease.
Bisokotuwa, Padaviya 18th Post, Track-B, Ruwanpura, Parakramapura, Bogahawewa and Mahasenpura are some of the worst affected villages in Padaviya DS Division, numbering approximately one out of three households with patients diagnosed with CKD.
Speaking at this occasion, Minister Dinesh Gunewardena thanked Coca-Cola Sri Lanka for becoming the first corporate to step forward to support this worthy cause that has impacted both children and adults in the Padaviya area. Coca-Cola Sri Lanka is the largest donor who has understood the gravity of the situation and invested millions of rupees on the RO Treatment Plant and its facilities donated to Parakramapura and Track B.
The Minister added: “We hope that other organisations will take the opportunity to support the provision of clean water for drinking and cooking purposes in other areas of the country affected by CKD and end the suffering of these innocent villagers.”
Current studies conducted by the WHO and the Health Ministry indicate that in these CKD prone areas 15% of the population which includes children of young ages and young adults are affected. These disease affected areas also have a record of 200 deaths annually and it is said to be spreading to the North Western, Uva and Eastern Provinces.
The disease is suggested to be caused by agricultural agents and many who reside in these areas are low income farmers whose monthly incomes only allow them state-run medical care and treatments which in the long run are huge cost issues to Government health authorities.
CKD is non-existent in the Anuradhapura City area which is supplied with treated surface water. Also, some other areas including Huruluwewa where the groundwater is recharged with Mahaweli waters are free of the disease. Hardness and fluoride present in groundwater contributes to the disease, according to the NWSDB. The CKD unit attached to the Anuradhapura hospital has confirmed that CKD patients who were supplied with good quality water have improved or stable – not progressing to advanced stages of the disease; this reassures that providing safe drinking water is vital. However, the water treatment processes adopted for reducing hardness and fluoride are costly and therefore, a strategy was developed to supply a limited quantity of treated water sufficient for direct consumption purposes such as for drinking and cooking
The proposed project will cover areas of Parakramapura and Track-B which has an existing community based water supply scheme where water is pumped from two boreholes and distributed through a water storage tower. The water source for the proposed system will be from this storage tower; a Reverse Osmosis (RO) treatment facility together with appropriate pre-treatment will be installed at the tower site. The treatment will be capable of reducing the hardness and fluoride well below the target levels of 150 mg/l and 0.3 mg/l respectively.
Commenting on the project, Kapila Welmillage – Country Manager, Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd. said: “We are happy that we can be part of a project that will meet the need of the community of Padaviya. We believe that every drop matters and we hope that this project will ensure that the most basic of human need – water – is met.”
Based on a ‘drinking and cooking’ requirement of 5L/capita daily, it has been determined that the RO facility should have a treatment capacity of 1,500 L/hour. The facility will operate 20 hours per day, seven days per week. Housing will also be provided for the treatment facility which will also serve as an office for the operators. The facility will have an on-site storage tank which will contain a backup water supply of 30m3.
