In September 2014 on hearing that over 22,000 people (mostly young males less than 50 years) had died of Chronic Kidney Disease or, CKD as it is commonly known, in the previous six years in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts in Sri Lanka and that these Department of Health statistics also revealed that the prevalence of CKD disease was reaching epidemic proportions with the incidence of CKD doubling every four years(4% in 2004, 8%in 2008 and 16% in 2012), Warren Loos of the Lions Club of Moorooka Australia contacted the late Deepal Pieris - ex President of the Lions Club of Borella, whom he knew personally, to initiate and sponsor a project to address this humanitarian cause with most CKD patients succumbing to the disease after suffering immensely for long periods.

In the spirit of Lionism, the Lions Club of Moorooka and the Lions Club of Borella in partnership with LCIF launched a CKD project called the Sri Lanka Clean Water Appeal to raise funds to provide clean drinking water through a Reverse Osmosis process to villages in these areas as studies by academics, scientists, the medical profession and the WHO over the years pointed out that the only way to prevent CKD disease in these areas is to provide pure drinking water through a Reverse Osmosis process.

On 28th October 2014 the project was launched at the Yeronga RSL Hall and following a detailed and informative presentation by Ian Towers – President of the Lions Club of Moorooka, $9,000 was raised on the night itself. Subsequently through a dinner dance, a raffle and donations from Lions members and well-wishers, a total of $30,000 was raised by the Lions Club of Moorooka and the Lions Club International Foundation provided a grant of $25,000. With these funds, two large Reverse Osmosis plant providing 10,000 litres of water per day were installed at two big cluster villages.

Additionally, Scott Walker, who was present at the project launch, contributed an additional $100,000 and these funds were utilised for procuring 17 small Reverse Osmosis plants providing 2200 litres of water per day as well as three medium size Reverse Osmosis plants providing 5500 litres of water per day to 19 small villages and the Nochiyagama Hospital.

Project Overview