Posted by RStoner on Mar 12, 2018
Rotarians bring Clean water to Sri Lanka and Save Lives
Water pollution from water run-off agricultural fields has contaminated drinking wells in Sri Lanka. An epidemic of people suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease has overwhelmed local hospitals and hundreds die every year.
 
Eight Rotary Clubs in NW Ohio, District 6600, worked together to get a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation to construct reverse osmosis systems for the communities most impacted.  
 
 
Clean Drinking Water in Sri Lanka via Reverse Osmosis
By Ron Stoner
 
Rice farming in north-central provinces of the tropical island country of Sri Lanka has been done for centuries. This was possible because water required for
irrigation of the paddy fields was collected and stored in man-made reservoirs during rainy seasons. In recent decades a severe outbreak of chronic kidney
disease (CKD) in those provinces has been traced to agricultural fertilizers and pesticides that unwittingly polluted reservoirs, irrigation canals and groundwater. The groundwater, in turn, fills the community wells that supply drinking water. The need for dialysis for CKD victims has overwhelmed hospitals. Hundreds die every year from this CKD epidemic.

The pollution is irreversible. The only way to remove the dissolved heavy metal ions responsible for CKD is through the process of reverse osmosis. Through
global grant GG1639829 from The Rotary Foundation awarded to the Rotary Club of Colombo Sri Lanka and eight Rotary Clubs from R. I. District 6600 (NW Ohio), reverse-osmosis plants have been built and are now providing clean water in seven rice-farming Sri Lankan villages affected by CKD. Each water plant serves about 1,400 people. Funding is sufficient for building five more such plants in the next several months.