Bringing vision and water to rural Karnataka
In July this year, Rotary Bangalore South Parade, RID 3191, in association with optical products manufacturer Carl Zeiss, launched the project Gift of Sight to provide 15,000 spectacles and 1,440 intra-ocular lenses (IOLs) to individuals undergoing cataract treatment across Karnataka. The project will be implemented every year at the Sri Sathya Sai Sarala Memorial Hospital located in Sathya Sai Grama, Muddenahalli, in Chikkaballapur, 60km from Bengaluru.
“There is no cash counter at the hospital; it offers free healthcare to everyone,” says club president Ravi Chakravarthy. Highlighting the genesis of the project, he explains, “The hospital requested our support in supplying spectacles and IOLs for treating people with vision disorders and cataracts. We reached out to our CSR partner, Carl Zeiss, and they immediately agreed to back this noble cause.”
The hospital will coordinate with the club to procure spectacles and IOLs based on requirements identified during their eye screening camps, while Carl Zeiss will ensure timely delivery. Besides, the hospital will extend its care to patients referred by the club from Rotary-organised eye camps.
Quenching the thirst of Devanahalli
The club is committed to addressing another critical need — access to clean drinking water in Devanahalli, a rural town near Bengaluru airport. With support from Carl Zeiss, the Rotarians recently installed a ₹65-lakh water treatment plant at the town’s municipal office under Project Ananda Sindhu. The plant aims to provide clean drinking water to the town’s population of around 38,000, who require approximately 12 lakh litres daily, says Chakravarthy.
K V Srinivasa from Carl Zeiss, at the inauguration of Project Ananda
Sindhu at Devanahalli town.
Devanahalli primarily relies on deep borewells, but the water is saline and unsuitable for drinking, “forcing residents to depend on public RO plants set up by the local municipal council for their water needs.” Last year, under the leadership of then-president Anand Ramchandra, the club implemented an innovative solution. The members revived a well near the Sihineeru Kere lake and constructed an integrated shallow aquifer and water treatment system. Two shallow aquifers were dug, yielding one lakh litres of water daily. With input from scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), a water treatment plant was developed to remove dissolved solids, bacteria and odour, providing two lakh litres of clean water daily to approximately 10,000 residents (Read Water divining Rotarians of RC Bangalore South Parade – Rotary News, Nov 2023).
Building on this success, the new water treatment plant has further augmented the town’s water supply by an additional 6.4 lakh litres. “With these two systems combined, we now meet more than half the total drinking water requirement of Devanahalli. We are continuously exploring ways to expand our support and enhance water accessibility for this community,” says Chakravarthy. The GoI has taken note of this project and directed officials from its Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation to study and replicate it in 10 other cities, including Bengaluru, where 25 lakes have been identified to augment the water supply, he adds.
