The Indira colony is a remote village in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, about 25km from RTU's main campus. A few years ago, there were 350 families living there without easy access to drinking water.

Around 1,600 children and adults had to pay three rupees for one plastic water pot – used for both drinking and household use – brought to them by a water lorry twice a week. The poorest families, who could not afford to pay even that small sum, needed to walk 2km to collect potentially contaminated water from a canal.

Often, children had to go with their mothers to help – missing school lessons as a result. The dirty water was then filtered through rags before being drunk.

And on occasions, during drought conditions, even the canal dried up....

Reaching the Unreached steps in

In 2016, village leaders were told about RTU's water programme. They asked us to help in drilling a well near their village, but the nearest site we could find – with the help of our dowser – was 2km away near the canal the poorest families had to walk to in order to collect their water.

Thankfully, we were able to sink a bore well almost 650 feet deep and found a plentiful water supply. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we were then able to lay a pipeline to transfer this water from the well straight to the village.

Since then, the quality of life of all the villagers has been substantially increased. No longer do some have to walk miles to collect contaminated water, and the children who are central to everything we do here at RTU are enjoying being at school.

Help us provide clean, safe water