A 1,200-foot deep tubewell supplying filtered drinking water has been commissioned at Shyamnagar Maa Sarada Vidyamandir in Kultali, South 24 Parganas, to address a long-standing shortage in the creek-adjacent villages of the Sundarbans.
The water project was launched on the day of Mahalaya through the initiative of voluntary organisation Bihan—The New Beginning. Birla Corporation Limited provided complete financial support for the project under its corporate social responsibility programme.
Residents in the coastal area have faced drinking-water shortages for a prolonged period because of the presence of saline water. According to the report, some residents were at times forced to consume saline water to meet their needs. The new tubewell is intended to provide filtered drinking water to students at the school as well as families living in the surrounding area.
Kamal Krishna Mondal, headmaster of Shyamnagar Maa Sarada Vidyamandir, said the school, located in a disadvantaged village, does not receive government assistance and had faced a serious drinking-water problem. He said the new tubewell, established through the voluntary organisation, would benefit the school’s students and enable many local families to collect drinking water from the facility.
The project has been established in an area where access to safe water is closely linked to the availability of local infrastructure. The source report did not specify the number of households expected to use the tubewell, its daily capacity or whether the water would be tested periodically by a public agency.
Soumen Das, secretary of Bihan—The New Beginning, said the organisation wanted Mahalaya to bring a message of health and better days into people’s lives. He described the initiative to ensure access to safe drinking water as a small but important step towards improving public health.
Arnab Saha, one of the organisation’s members, said the Kultali project was part of its continuing social-service work. The organisation had previously conducted competitions for children, distributed clothing and undertaken other community programmes in the area. It is also working on infrastructure improvements at several schools in South 24 Parganas and Purulia, according to the report.
The project’s location at a school gives the facility a dual role: it serves an educational institution while also functioning as a community water point. The headmaster said the new supply would help students and nearby residents, although the report did not provide details on operating arrangements, maintenance responsibility or the charges, if any, for collecting water.
The launch was accompanied by a clothing distribution programme ahead of the festival season. More than 200 women from the village received new sarees during the event. The water facility and the distribution programme were welcomed by local residents, the report said.
