The joy of clean water
What We Do
Well-Being (Sri Lanka) provides secure water supplies to families in an area of Sri Lanka called the Wanni where people displaced by the 30 year war were resettled.
The aim of the organisation is to help families to improve their lives by access to their own water supply. This will:
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Improve health through non-contaminated, consistent supplies of water by providing easier access to drinking water and washing facilities.
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In addition, the water will help with the cultivation of food for the family and provide a crop for selling.
Why is it needed?
The 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka ended brutally in 2009, and thousands of internally displaced people were resettled in an area called the Wanni. The landless were allocated pieces of land and the homeless were given small grants to build their own brick houses.
Tens of thousands of those who were disabled, bereaved or displaced as a consequence of the war are still struggling to scrape together a dignified living eight years after the war ended.
Making bricks, building wells
Our vision is to transform areas of deprivation and suffering into thriving communities providing families with food and independence and perhaps most of all, hope for the future.
Making bricks, building wells
Building the Wells
We identify those in need in partnership with District Councils, local churches and charities, and other local bodies. We work alongside local people, with our money, technical expertise and quality assurance underpinning the work of local people who enthusiastically pitch in to make the bricks and dig out their own wells. Involving and empowering local people means that wells are properly used and maintained after our departure to other villages.
A typical dugout well costs about £500 at current exchange rates, less when we are securing an existing waterhole. Depths will vary from 15 feet to 35 feet, and lined by concrete blocks, with the sinking of concrete rings in sandy and unstable soils. There will be two pillars carrying a cross beam with pulley for a suspended bucket. A cement apron platform and a protective wall will be constructed around the well.
Where the terrain is more challenging and the water table deeper below the surface, tubed borehole wells to a depth of more than 150 feet may be needed. These wells need submersible pumps and cost nearer £1000.
Existing dugout wells are already in use, dug by desperate families, but the absence of proper reinforcement and surrounding walls make them susceptible to collapse, and a continuous risk, with stories abounding of children falling in and drowning, or cattle falling in and contaminating the water. Securing and reinforcing these existing wells will attract priority attention in the near term.
All our wells are designed and constructed to good engineering practice. All risks associated with the activities have been evaluated and the necessary remedial measures implemented. A Health, Safety and Environmental policy is in place and is being rigorously implemented.
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