Safe Drinking Water

Access to clean water is a priority for a developing country like India. Health and well-being are closely related to access to safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. The Foundation endeavours to:

Guarantee the provision of safe, purified and potable drinking water
Ensure that the technology used in recovering or recharging depleting water resources is not capital or manpower intensive or technologically intimidating and yet scalable
RVF’s water purification units are designed to draw water from community water resources and are managed by locally trained members from the community.

The Foundation encourages community involvement and projects are initiated with collaboration from the Gram Panchayat and participation from local trained youth

“Access to safe, drinking water changes lives. It ensures better health, income, and helps keep children in school.” – Raju Vegesna

A Save the Children-PwC India report estimates that approximately 44.3 crore school days are lost in India as a result of water and sanitation related diseases. An estimated 76 million people in the country have no easy access to safe drinking water.

The Raju Vegesna Foundation believes that access to clean water is a priority for a developing country like India.

RVF first got involved in providing this precious resource to the maximum number of people in 2008. Mr. Raju Vegesna had flown down to worship at the famous Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, the world’s richest temple in terms of donations received.

Officials of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the temple trust, spoke to him about the difficulty they had in proving clean water to pilgrims. The water flowing into the town from reservoirs was contaminated, and they feared it would lead to an outbreak of disease. About 50,000 to 60,000 devotees visit the temple every day.

The conversation lit a spark, and the Raju Vegesna Foundation kicked off a project to supply purified drinking water to pilgrims with the help of RO plants. In the eleven years since, RVF has installed 94 water-purifying units in Tirumala. These efforts have also helped the TTD ban packaged drinking water in the town, thus reducing a major source of plastic pollution.

The Foundation uses scalable, sustainable technology to provide potable drinking water throughout Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in a consistent and affordable manner. The goal is to ensure that the technology used in recovering or recharging depleting water resources is not capital or manpower intensive or technologically intimidating.

RVF’s water purification units are designed to draw water from community water resources and are managed by locally trained members from the community. The Foundation encourages community involvement and projects are initiated with collaboration from the Gram Panchayat and participation from local trained youth.