Another three Reverse Osmosis plants vested with the community by the Navy
 

Following 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 the 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 a high prevalence of the Chronic Interstitial Nephritis in Agricultural Communities (CINAC) is recorded. Accordingly, 3 more RO plants installed in the village of Beligalla in Mahiyanganaya, Sri Dharmodhaya Pirivena in Girandurukotte and village of Nikawehera in Polpithigama were vested with the community in those areas today (9).

As a consequence of the RO plant installation in the village of Beligalla in Mahiyangana, over 280 families in the area now have the access to safe drinking water. Meanwhile the facility at the Dharmodhaya Pirivena in Girandurukotte possesses the capability of providing safe drinking water for 35 monk-students following their Piriven Education at the temple and 800 families in the area. Similarly the RO plant installed in Nikawehera, Polpithigama will quench the thirst of approximately 750 families residing in the village, with safe drinking water. The financial assistance needed for these projects was given by the Presidential Task Force on Prevention of Kidney Diseases and the compartments where the systems are housed were constructed by the naval Civil Engineers under the careful supervision of Commander South Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Sumith Weerasinghe and Commander North Western Naval Area, Rear Admiral Niraja Attygalle.

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 short span of time. As a result, the Navy had managed to install 96 RO plants in different parts of the country and facilitate over 45,130 families and 40,350 school children with safe drinking water to date. Besides, the Navy is determined to set up a number of RO facilities in due course to support the noble effort of eradicating the renal disease from Sri Lanka.