Puritas Sath Diyawara celebrates 5th anniversary with expansion into Uva Province Celebrating 5 years of providing essential support to farming communities in dry zone, diversified multinational conglomerate, Hayleys Group announced the expansion of its flagship clean drinking water initiative Hayleys’ ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara’ into the Uva Province with plans to establish five new Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants to supply over 50,000 litres of urgently required clean drinking water to communities affected by the Chronic Kidney Disease.
Since it was first commenced in 2014, Puritas Sath Diyawara has positively impacted the lives of over 33,000 Sri Lankans in 19 villages in the North and North Central Provinces. During that time, the programme successfully supplied more than 160,000 litres of clean drinking water per day.
“In the five years that have passed, we have been able to supply clean drinking water to these communities consistently, and as a result, we are happy to note that at present, no new cases of CKDu have been detected in any of the 19 villages where our model has been established. We can, therefore, state with confidence that Puritas Sath Diyawara has been extremely effective, and helped to give these communities new hope and access to fresh opportunities in terms of education and livelihood development. This is the same type of success which we hope to replicate for communities facing a similar plight in the Uva District,” Haycarb PLC, Managing Director, Rajitha Kariyawasan stated.
In total, Hayleys Group has invested over Rs. 64 million towards the Sath Diyawara initiative. These include investments in RO plants, as well as water distribution networks through bowsers and multiple docking stations strategically set up to ensure equal access to clean drinking water for all members of its Sath Diyawara Communities.
Further, Rs. 13 million has been invested in the provision of academic essentials for school children in recent years.
Regular surveys are conducted to maintain the quality of the plants, with the income earned through the sale of one litre of clean drinking water at Rs. 1 by the Community Based Organisation (CBO) pumped back into the CBO for maintenance and development of the villagers.
“The Sath Diyawara initiative initially focused on providing clean drinking water to areas that were affected by CKDu. However, it has evolved to encompass initiatives taken towards uplifting and developing these communities through investments in education, livelihood development and the establishment of new libraries and internet access centres, so that children in these communities have a chance to enhance their education,” Kariyawasan explained. Puritas, a subsidiary of Haycarb PLC and a member of Hayleys Group, was also presented with the World Energy Globe Award 2017 in Water Category in recognition of its efforts to provide quality drinking water for Sri Lankans living in the areas affected by CKDu.
The initiative was also recognized at Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) for three consecutive years from 2015 – 2017 for the wider impact it has created on the communities.
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