▌Pure Drinking Water Management Project in Moragollagama-Saliyagama (Challenge to Deadly Fluorosia)

The universal need for man, animal and plant is water. Water is considered the most important component of the food chain. Water is therefore the key to the environment and health. However, the people of these villages have drawn the attention of our club to the fact that they suffer in various ways due to the scarcity pure drinking water in the region and consequently the health hazards they continue to suffer.

In our preliminary survey we saw for ourselves the untold hardships and life threatening challengers the people of the regions face.

The soil in the region has no much water retention capacity and even the little rain the region gets is evaporated in no time due to the severe heat. Hence, a dire need has arisen to collect and conserve whatever the rain water the regions get for human consumption and other domestic needs.

This region has been identified as HIGH FLUORIDE AREA and evidence of dental and skeletal fluorosis has been found. Therefore, we suggest to collect rain water which is completely free from high fluoride and thereby eliminating the health hazards of the people. Our project therefore is to build 78 tanks for "High Fluoride Free Rain Water Harvesting" ( = collect rain water). The 78 families being identified to receive the water tanks are among the poorest in the region. They either have no well at all or have a well with a highly toxic fluoride level.

The danger of the effects of fluorosis and possible solutions to the problem has been indicated by Professor I. Rathnayake in the following extract:

"The chronic toxic effects of fluorosis in the skeletal system and nervous system, dental tissue and others have been dealt with earlier. The treatment is basically to avoid ingestion of fluoride rich water and food ¼ "

(Prof. Ratnayake, I., Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 52 nd Annual Session, Proceedings, Part II; Colombo 1996, p. 36.

Special Note:
Apart the above project we will support the programs of District Governor C1 (2008/ 09)

Please contact for more details:
Lion Prof. Risiman Amarasinghe,
Ph. D. (University of Colombo, Sri Lanka)
Ph. D. (University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka)
Ph. D. (University of Leiden, The Netherlands)
D. Litt. (Mulawanshika Maha Nikaya, Sri Lanka)
Charter President, President (2008/ 09), Project Director and International Project Coordinator,
Lions Club of Colombo Golden Jubilee.

"Amara Medura",
Seeduwa North,
Seeduwa (11410),
Sri Lanka .

E-mail: rosman@dialognet.lk
Tel/ Fax: (+0094)-11-2252774