Hyderabad: Jaldhaara Foundation, a project for safe and potable drinking water, was launched at Janawada village, Shankarpally, by Waterhealth India on Friday.
The project will be run and managed by the community women and is aimed at promoting safe water consumption and inculcating hygiene practices in underserved communities.
To begin with, 2,500 schools will be brought under the project by engaging women self-help groups.
The first clean drinking water plant under the project, which was inaugurated at Janwada, was conceptualised months back. Setting up the plant is part of a larger goal of creating a behavioral change in these communities.
JF will create awareness and spread the message of safe drinking water and work with partners on the provision of infrastructure (water facilities) to provide clean and safe drinking water for underserved communities.
At the centre of its activities will be focus on training women to run the Waterhealth Centres, thereby creating employment and empowering them and conducting programmes that ensure that schoolchildren in the communities get safe drinking water.
Under the Water for Schools initiative, being launched by Jaldhaara Foundation, clean drinking water will be provided to close to a million schoolchildren. The programme has also received support from leaders in entertainment, business and industry.
Present at the launch were US Ambassador to India, Nancy J. Powell, Union minister of commerce and industries Anand Sharma, Hollywood celebrities including Emmy Award winning actor Jon Cryer; talk show host Lisa Joyner; Tony award winning playwright Gretchen Cryer; producer John H. Williams (Shrek); Richard Celeste (US ambassador to India from 1997 to 2001), his wife Jacqueline Lundquist; and NPR and McNeil-Lehrer News Hour contributor, Lee Cullum.
Among the Indian celebrities, Jackie Shroff, Dia Mirza and Gulshan Grover, who have contributed to the project, were present. “Jaldhaara aims at connecting social awareness programmes with the provision of safe drinking water to underserved communities and schools.
The foundation will raise funds to support the programs that will bring about a transformation in the underserved communities, empower women and help schoolchildren maintain good health,” said chief serendipity officer, WaterHealth International, Jacqueline Lundquist.
