Clean drinking water...at last!

The Ambikapuram village sits at around 2,400 feet above ground level, amidst a cold, serene and beautiful environment on the Nilgri hills, a part of the Western Ghats, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.

But the hills face a problem that seems totally out of place - lack of proper potable water. In spite of the continuous rainfall (687.5 mm of rainfall annually), most villages in this area do not have a potable source of water.

Little Seena was very excited as she accompanied us to the top of the hill to show us the water tank that World Vision had built for the village. Though Seena’s village is located on the gorgeously picturesque hills, it too had severe water problems. “We used to get sick very often, because the water we used to get was very dirty,” said little Seena.

The government had built a water tank, but was very poorly built and maintained. “Most of the times our drinking water came mixed with the sewage water,” said Carli, a member of a Self Help Group (SHG) in the village. “So our children used to get sick very often,” she added.

Heeding to the problem, World Vision built a new water tank with a capacity of 50,000 liters. Water from four wells nearby, is collected and stored in this tank atop a small hill. And then the water from this tank flows down to over 400 families in three villages, one of which is little Seena’s as well.

Seena recalled that most children in the villages, specially the girl children used to miss school very often because of the scarcity of potable water. “Sometimes in the morning our mothers would ask us go fetch water from the nearby wells and come. And by the time we return with the water, it would be too late for school, so we would skip school that day,” said Seena.

But now, ever since World Vision has built the tank, the children are able to go to school regularly without any obstacles. And over 400 families get clean drinking water everyday.