To tackle the persisting lack of reliable and clean drinking water faced by the people of the Bagepalli village, Right To Live joined hands with NASDAQ in installing an RO (Reverse Osmosis) plant in the area. The first installation took place in October 2020 in Komlipalli village, however, much recently, two more were installed in Madapallu and Narayanaswamy Kote villages during September 2021.
Right To Live is a Bangalore-based NGO that has been serving the underprivileged for the last 10 years with the higher purpose of ‘Transforming Lives Through Quality Education and Health,’ as their vision substantiates. Right To Live became aware of the dire need and deprived conditions in the Bagepalli village through site visits for their e-learning school project. In the observations, Right To Live discovered that the villagers in the Bagepalli struggle to access clean drinking water. “That pushed us to think of helping whatever we could to the villagers,” Program Manager, Shambhavi R said.
Speaking about certain stumbling blocks on this philanthropist and socially responsible path, Shambhavi R explained that the availability of suitable land posed a major difficulty. “The required water source or connection to the identified land was an issue. 2 out of 3 are given for RO plant construction by individual donors, and one more is government owned land. We have got an MoU signed with all of them to install RO plants,” she added.
Right To Live maintains complete transparency with its donors and no part of the funds are used for administration purposes! Therefore, despite no funds being received from the government, Right To Live implemented the project. Nasdaq is solely responsible for funding this entire project as part of its CSR grant.
In conversation about the impact of the installation of the RO plant, Shambhavi informed, “in Bagepalli, old borewells are the primary source of drinking water, which is majorly contaminated with high amounts of fluoride. As a result, people (especially children) suffer from dental fluorosis to varying extents. But villagers have no choice but to drink from wherever they can. They were struggling to find safe drinking water in the area. With 3 RO plants that Right To Live installed, close to 5,000 villagers will get access to clean drinking water nearby.”
During the pandemic, getting labourers for civil work was a challenge for Right To Live. Since the villagers of the area showered support to this project, they joined hands to complete the construction in time. “RO plant inauguration day was like a festival day for them. When Right To Live team visited the village for the inauguration function, villagers welcomed us warmly with garlands and bursted crackers. All the people, especially mothers, celebrated with joy as the children could be free from drinking high fluoride water,” the program manager affirmed.
Can you imagine drinking contaminated dirty water on a daily basis? Being exposed to several deadly diseases every day? Well, this is what the people of Bagepalli Taluk go through every single day. Water resources including lakes are polluted. Clean water is miles away. Painkiller tablets intake has become regular to people living in this area. Dental issues are commonly found in the village caused due to high fluoride content in water. In such premises, Right To Live’s project of setting up RO plants is very important.
Speaking on future endeavours, Right To Live revealed that given sufficient funds from donors or any company that supports the cause with the CSR grant, they shall be more than happy to host and implement such projects.
“Bagepalli taluk is one of the most backward regions in the state of Karnataka. Let us join hands to change the lives of poor villagers in this region by facilitating access to quality education and health,” with this message, Shambhavi R signed off.
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