Hyderabad: A slum accesses clean water, thanks to a Good Samaritan

Water is the basic essential resource for human beings. But access to clean drinking water has become a challenge for poor people, especially for slum-dwellers.

Rasoolpura being the oldest and biggest slum in the city, there the residents are facing an acute shortage of clean drinking water – they get water only once in 4 to 5 days and also the water is unsafe for drinking due to contamination by the sewage water running parallel to the water pipes. The water is often smelly as chlorine is added to purify the water.

Moved by the plight of these parched throats, Jayant Manghnani, a Class XI student of Chirec International School, Kondapur, has taken up an initiative under the name of SHUDH to provide clean and safe water to the slum-dwellers of Rasoolpura. A good response was elicited by his crowdfunding campaign for about 10 days. An amount of Rs 1,50,000 fund was collected to execute this mission. He distributed 100 water filters among the poor households.

Jayant says of his initiative: "During the time of pandemic and floods, I along with my friends Antara Agarwal, Nandini Agarwal, Dev Ravi and Eshaan Agarwal, under the banner of 'Naya Nirmaan,' distributed foods packets , masks, sanitisers and handwash. During that time, we came across the slum dwellers of Rasoolpura facing hardships due to the acute shortage of safe water.

"I planned to make water filters but could not execute it, so we bought the water filters from the market. Before distributing the filters , we have distributed tokens to slum dwellers, so that there is no confusion," he said. Each water filter costs Rs 1,500 each and it is effective, unbreakable, easy to maintain and does not require electricity or running water supply. With a capacity of 16 liters, filters can provide safe drinking water to a family of 5 for up to 2 days. The filter can purify 5,000 liters of water (almost 1 year's requirement) after which it just needs a change of the cartridge which costs Rs. 350 which is easily available in the market.

"We have received an overwhelming response, and with all the support and encouragement from our donors, we now plan to expand this project and reach out to more families in Rasoolpura and also plan to expand this project in other slum areas in the twin cities," adds the good Samaritan.