Perera and Sons donates Reverse Osmosis plant to Gamini Vidyalaya Kudawilachchiya under their CSR campaign – Manu Mehewara

Commemorating the value of the role that water plays in enabling and securing livelihoods, Perera and Sons donates yet another reverse osmosis (RO) plant to the Gamini Vidyalaya Kudawilachchiya, in the Anuradhapura district. This area is well known for the elephant human conflicts and an increase in kidney borne diseases due to the lack of clean drinking water. The reverse osmosis plant ensures that students, teaching staff and the general community alike, all obtain access to clean, safe drinking water, thereby reducing the incidence and spread of water borne diseases which is a wide spread concern in these areas. It also stands to act as valuable source of drinking water in an area plagued with continuous drought, and water scarcity that has caused great difficulty and stunted the local agriculture as well. The villagers pay Rs 2 – Rs 5 for a liter of drinking water, which is sold by those visiting door to door.

The Gamini Vidyalaya, founded in 1952, currently comprised of a teaching staff of 20 individuals, provides access to quality education for over 136 students, across different phases of education, from grade 1 to grade 11. The Principal, Ms Sandamalee and the Educational Zonal Director Nethranjana added that the RO plant enables higher efficiency water treatment and will allow the school to generate a steady supply of uncontaminated water for both general and public use, beneficial towards securing the health and safety of the local community.

The donation is part of Perera and Son’s efforts to support a request from the Sri Lanka Navy towards assisting the local communities. It also highlights the Company’s long-term commitment to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 3 – Good Health and Well-being, and 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, respectively under their CSR brand Manu Mehewara.

Reverse Osmosis is a widely-used water treatment process which removes contamination by passing pressurized water through a semi-permeable membrane. The membrane isolates pollutants and allows pure water molecules to pass through, while trapping and separating the contaminated molecules. The RO process filters out all possible contaminants, thus leaving behind clean drinking water for use. These units are manufactured by the expert engineers of the Sri Lanka Navy, and Ltcd Gamage from the Sri Lanka Navy mentioned that for every 20 liters of water, 8 liters is filtered for drinking purposes and the balance 12 is used for agriculture purposes. A 5000 liter storage tank is used to pump and store water from a tube well. The RO plant ensures communal access to clean, consumable drinking water to the villagers of Kudawilachchiya, with 3 taps installed outside the school gate.