keerippathi drinking water project inaugurated

Tribal villagers in Keeripathy village of Sholayur panchayat had to walk more than half a kilometre down a steep hill through elephant infested forests to fetch drinking water for many years. The water streams close to the village had dried up about 20 years ago. The Jalanidhi drinking water project for a cluster of villages in the area had lots of promise. But the force of water progressively reduced over two years and there was no water for most of the days in a year. Bethany Medical Centre authorities dug a well some distance away from the village, but the water was scarce. Later the block panchayat dug a borewell and constructed a tank and laid pipelines and taps, still, the water supply did not last. For the last 8 years, the villagers have struggled every day to get drinking water.

The members of the village development committee and the Ooru mooppan met the Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission trust authorities a few years ago with this problem. SVMM was looking for financial help for this project when members of Kerala Hindus of North America KHNA came forward with an offer of support. In March 2021, KHNA decided to support this project and fundraising was done in a very short time.

A borewell was set up in April. Other work was completed in August because of the delay during the Covid surge.
The project was inaugurated by Dr Satheesh Ambadi President of KHNA today 4th September. Prasanth A.K. ( Architect), Sreekumar( Senior Correspondent, Janmabhumi) Dr Narayanan Venkitasubramani and Anandu J Projects Manager participated.

We thank the leadership of KHNA for the initiative and timely response and the donors to this campaign. Our Pranams to Poojaneeya Swami Chidananda Puri for his blessings to this project. Our sincere thanks for the wishes and encouragement from Sri T. P. Senkumar IPS.
The involvement of the people of Keeripathy village in completing this project and the maintenance of the drinking water system was the most heartwarming story of this project, and that will be the reason for its overwhelming success in the coming years.