Five more Reverse Osmosis plants vested with the community
 

Under the visionary concept of the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, the Navy has been implementing a range of Community Service Programmes focusing on the wellbeing of civilian population. To support that initiative, the Navy’s Research and Development Unit undertook the noble cause of installing Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in areas where the high prevalence of the Chronic Interstitial Nephritis in Agricultural Communities (CINAC) is recorded. Accordingly, five more RO plants installed at different locations in Anuradhapura, were declared open for community use over the last few days.

Incidentally, 2 RO systems were installed at Swarnapali Balika Junior School and Swarnapali Balika Maha Vidyalaya in Anuradhapura. The two facilities are capable of producing safe drinking water for over 2,500 school children and 130 teachers of the Junior School and 3,000 school children and 200 teachers of Swarnapali Balika Maha Vidyalaya respectively. The compartments in which the RO systems are housed, have been constructed by the naval Civil Engineers under the supervision of Commander North Central Naval Area, Rear Admiral Merril Wickramasinghe. Moreover, the Navy also set up another RO system at Velampalla Maha Vidyalaya for the benefit of 250 school children, 50 staff members of the school and 750 residents in the area. The financial assistance needed for this project was given by the Presidential Task Force on Prevention of Kidney Diseases and the building where the system is placed was constructed by the naval Civil Engineers under the careful supervision of Commander South Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Sumith Weerasinghe.

Meanwhile, realizing the need of having an RO plant at the Navy House in Anuradhapura, in view of facilitating the senior officers and their family members who visit the destination for their holidays and naval personnel attached to the Navy House, yet another RO system was installed at the location. Besides, the RO facility set up at the Naval Deployment Oyamaduwa will be of immense help to the officers and their family members who visit the Oyamaduwa Holiday Bungalow, the sailors who are attached to the Naval Deployment and 400 families in the area.

The Sri Lanka Navy’s Research and Development Unit has been extremely influential in producing and installing low-budget RO plants across the country utilizing their expertise, in record time. As a result, the looming threat of renal disease has been curbed in to a certain extent among the community who is prone to this desperate plight. Further, this magnanimous effort of the Navy receives high praise from the community and they extend their great debt of gratitude to the Commander of the Navy and all naval personnel for giving them a sigh of relief.

Accordingly, the Navy had installed 91 RO plants in different parts of the country and facilitated over 41,750 families and 40,000 school children with safe drinking water to date. Besides, the Navy is determined to set up a number of RO facilities in due course in view of eradicating the renal disease from Sri Lanka.