Page 58 - 30NOV2019EA
P. 58

Living in the 21st century, access   Technology
      to basic facilities like clean drinking wa-
      ter and toilets are still a challenge in our
        To meet the basics of life, Boduvalasa  brings social
      country. Throughout India, lack of clean
      drinking water and toilets cause deadly
      diseases and unsafe environments for
      living.

      village, 21 km away from Visakhapatnam
      in the state of Andhra Pradesh has come   change in
      up with a solution to access clean water
      and sanitation system.
        A non-profit organisation called
        Before SANA setup the ‘Solar power  rural Andhra
      SANA has come up with the idea of us-
      ing technology for social impact in
      Boduvalasa.
      compact water purification station and
      bio-toilets’ in the village, people were   The idea of using technology to improve water and sanitation
      depended on the borewells water and   infrastructure has brought social impact in the rural areas of
      few community toilets provided by the
      government.                      Andhra Pradesh, reports nibedita saha
        Laxmi, sarpanch of Boduvalasa vil-
      lage spoke about the benefits of the inte-
      grated water and sanitation system, said,
      “Earlier we use to drink bore-well water,
      which had many health side effects. Peo-
      ple had to suffer various stomach and
      waterborne diseases. Now we don’t have
      to face such problems.”
        A total of 1,500 houses in Boduvalasa
      are totally depended on the water pu-
      rifying stations to meet their regular
      drinking water needs. This water station
      has changed the life of the people in the
      village as they don’t have to ‘walk miles
      to get water’; instead, they have access to
      clean water along with bio-toilets which
      has eased their life a bit.
        Talking about the necessity, Laxmi
      said, “No one in the village has to worry
      about clean water anymore, even people
      from the nearby village come to our vil-
      lage to get drinking water.”
        The water purifying stations have also
      brought some short of employment op-
      tions for the village people. Laxmi told
      that there is a very high demand for
      clean drinking water in the village.
        “Every day, we produce almost 800
      liter of drinking water. We sell one-liter
      drinking water at  25 paisa and  5 for 20
      liters and we use the money for main-
      tains of the water station, paying the
      local operator and for toilet cleaning


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