No Drinking Water in 6,000 Schools in Tamil Nadu

Extended Mid-Day meal Scheme to the Upper Primary School Children

No Drinking Water in 6,000 Schools in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: About 6,103 schools across the state still lack access to safe drinking water. This information was given by Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu during the inauguration of ‘Elixir of Life’ project, a joint venture of Coca-Cola India Inc and Rotary International, at the Social service League Primary School in the city on Monday.

Specifically more than 50 percent of the state’s higher secondary school needed safe drinking water, he explained, emphasizing the importance of the same water-borne diseases were the major source of illness for school-going children across the state.

“While it is the government’s duty to address this issue, voluntary organizations should also add to the efforts. Any help needed for this will be given by my department,” he assured, commending the new project which envisages ensuring “Pure drinking water” to school students.

In the first phase, 100 schools across Chennai, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Kancheepuram and Tiruvanamalai will be provided with water treatment units, each costing Rs.60, 000 to purify water, removing odours, hardness and bacteria.

The units will be supervised for three years, with filters being changed every 15 days.

To ensure that students had access to pure drinking water even at home, they would be provided with one litre bottles to fill with water and take them home.

This would lessen absenteeism due to illnesses, Benjamin Cherian, chairman, Rotary International 3230 Centennial Charitable Trust, said.

All hundreds schools would be covered over the next six months after which the project would be expanded.

The Minister also said that discussions were on to finalize how the proposed portion on ‘Health and Hygiene’ could be included as part of school syllabus for standard VI and above from the next academic year onwards. Further, the mission to ensure toilet facilities for all the schools in the state over the next three years, with special focus on girls’ schools, was being executed with 25 percent of toilets having been constructed so far, he claimed.

“We know that better facilities are needed in our schools, but the government would need the help of voluntary organizations like Rotary also,” he stressed.

The students of the school performed a dance a skit. Eugenie Pinto, Principal, Queen Mary’s College, Deepak Jolly, Vice president, Public Affairs and Communications, CocaCola Inc, and N Ram, editor-in-chief, The Hindu, also participated.

No Drinking Water in 6,000 Schools in Tamil Nadu

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